Drowning
by Laurie Kay
Summary: After Ginny nearly drowns, she is haunted by visions of the life of Mildred LeGray. This spirit is trying to warn her of something, but what? HG ship
1. Ginny's Revenge and Ron's Underwear

Something was bound to happen, sooner or later, she knew.

In fact, a lot of something had already happened. It was just that Ginny Weasley was afraid of what could possibly still happen. There were many possibilities, but many of the possibilities that had made themselves clear to Ginny seemed frightening, terrifying, disturbing, all those things. The world, at the moment, was choosing to be very unpredictable.

Ginny had chosen by her own free will to go with Harry the previous month when they had traveled by thestral to the Ministry of Magic. So had Luna and Neville. There wasn't really a choice in the matter. They couldn't have let them go alone. The battle at the Ministry had been Ginny's first real battle and her first real encounter with Death Eaters. The name made her shudder.

You Know Who-- Voldemort could be anywhere at that exact moment, planning his next attack. That's what Ginny was afraid of. You Know---Voldemort disappeared off the face of the Earth for an entire year before he came out with the attack on the ministry. He could be planning something even bigger this time.

Ginny sat by the river in Ottery St. Catchpole mulling over all these thoughts. Of course, she couldn't talk to anyone about her fears, lest she be treated as the child she was so frequently considered. She threw a stone into the wide river and watched the water splash up.

She sighed. They were always treating her like a child, all six of her brothers and both of her parents, all of them. Ron had nearly had a fit a few months back when he found out she was going out with Michael Corner. Ginny had no idea why Ron thought he had a say in Ginny's personal life. She was fifteen years old, after all. She didn't really care that Ron was right about Michael either. Michael was a prat when it came to quidditch. But Ron really shouldn't have made such a scene when she said that she'd chosen Dean Thomas. Of course, Ginny was being sarcastic, but Dean wasn't even really bad looking. She sighed again. Ginny wondered if she would always be treated as the child.

The sun was beginning to get low in the sky and Ginny supposed that she should probably go back home before her family tore apart England to find her.

**xxxxxxx**

Ginny walked through the gate leading to her home, the Burrow. She spotted a few garden gnomes sneaking in over the fence on the other side of the yard. Suddenly a large ginger-haired cat with a bushy tail zoomed through the garden, heading straight for the intruding gnomes. The gnomes, upon seeing the ginger cat, abruptly turned and went back over the fence as quickly as possible.

She had to look twice as the ginger cat, swishing his tail with pride, slinked back toward the Burrow. It couldn't be, could it? Was that Crookshanks?

Ginny sped toward the door. If her suspicions were correct, Hermione Granger had arrived sometime that afternoon without her knowledge. She wasn't expecting Hermione until next week. Maybe they had changed plans and no one had bothered to tell her. Ginny huffed indignantly. Hermione was her friend too. She wasn't only Ron's best friend.

She was half expecting Ron and Hermione and Fred and George (who only really lived at the Burrow on weekends) to be having a happy little party without her because she was just too little to be partying and setting off some Filibusters Fireworks. If Ron really hadn't told her about Hermione coming early because he thought she was just his little sister and not an actual person who made friends, she was going to have to give him a piece of her mind.

Ginny barged loudly into the kitchen, sure to make the door bang as she opened it, and opened her mouth to yell at Ron, wherever he may have been in the house, when she noticed someone with messy black hair sitting at the worn out table that was neither Ron nor Hermione.

Ginny was looking at Harry Potter.

She was vaguely aware that her mouth was hanging open, caught in a midway yell. After Ginny got over the initial shock of finding Harry so unexpectedly in her kitchen she had the sense enough to close her mouth and chirp a greeting to him.

"Harry!" Ginny said in a surprised manner. "When did you get here?" She slid into a chair next to him and threw her book down onto the table.

He gave her a small smile back and replied. "Only twenty minutes ago." In reply to Ginny's unvoiced question he said, "Dumbledore said it was okay for me to come by a little bit early this year. I really don't think I could stand my cousin always skirting around me for much longer anyway." Harry grinned and looked at Ginny with his brilliant green eyes.

She tried to imagine Harry's cousin Dudley. As Fred and George had described him, he largely resembled a baby elephant in a blonde wig. Ginny's mouth curled into a smile as she imagined an elephant in a blonde wig, twice Harry's size, screaming in terror then running away. It was quite a comical thought.

"So," Ginny began. She had to fill the silence that suddenly overpowered the kitchen. "So, how's your summer been?" The moment the words left her mouth she froze. Ginny couldn't believe how tactless and stupid she had just been. Harry's aunt and uncle weren't pleasant people at all from what she knew of them. Ginny couldn't believe she had been so insensitive as well, because Harry's godfather, Sirius Black had just been killed little more than a month ago. Her body tensed up and she held her breath, watching Harry for his reaction.

Harry, as soon as what Ginny had said had registered, had also tensed up visibly. His normally bright green eyes clouded over and stared into a corner. As if making up his mind, he suddenly shook his head and gave Ginny a slight smile. "Well," he began quietly. "For the last twenty minutes it's been great."

Ginny slowly let out the breath she had been holding and before she could utter an apology or anything, Ron stampeded down the stairs. "There you are!" He said, annoyed. "Mum checked in an hour ago from Diagon Alley and nearly blew up the fireplace when I said you went outside alone. She told me to go look for you but I was expecting Harry around that time so I sent out Crookshanks."

"I had my wand," Ginny said exasperatedly. She rolled her eyes. It was always like this, despite the fact that she was fifteen. Voldemort or not, Ginny was always treated like a baby. "Anyway, since when has Crookshanks been here? And since when have we been expecting Harry?"

"Well, Crookshanks got here this morning. I'm watching him for Hermione while she goes to Wales or somewhere to see some relatives or something...and we've been expecting Harry since last week, you know that."

"I did not know that," Ginny huffed and shot daggers at Ron. "Nice of you to tell me, really."

Ron's ears turned slightly pinker than normal. "Well...well, that still doesn't mean you can go around wherever you want and disappear all day! You know mum goes bonkers when you do that." Ron suddenly saw Harry at the table, and Ginny beside him. He gave them both an odd look. "Just don't disappear again. Mum might get mad at me and send me another Howler..."

"Fine, just fine then." Ginny stood violently from her place beside Harry at the table. "Well, I suppose Harry is going to want to unpack, and so I'll just disappear into my room then, shall I?" With that, Ginny marched up the narrow stairs to her bedroom and slammed the door, leaving a very amused Harry and a very bewildered Ron in her quake.

**xxxxxxx**

Later that day, Harry and Ron sat in the den playing chess and the smell of a home-cooked meal could be smelled throughout the rickety house. Ginny hadn't been seen or heard from since she had stormed up the stairs earlier that afternoon. Mr. Weasley was still at the Ministry pulling long hours and Mrs. Weasley was cooking the food that was filling the house with a delicious aroma.

When the smell of cooking food had finally reached Ginny's bedroom she decided that she had been cold toward Ron for long enough and that she didn't really need to lock herself up and starve herself to demonstrate that she was angry. No, that was just stupid. She could glare at Ron and act angry while she was eating. Anger wasn't worth locking oneself up and starving. Ginny emerged from her lair and padded down to the kitchen, toward the smell of cooking food.

Ron had just smashed Harry's queen, and the knights and pawns were screaming orders at him, when he heard Ginny's voice softly coming from the kitchen. He had been wondering where she had disappeared to all afternoon. Somehow, Harry figured that she wasn't as angry as she had acted.

Another one of Harry's pawns had been annihilated when Ginny wandered into the room. She stood at his left shoulder, surveying the checkered board on which there was a miniscule amount of white pieces and a decidedly larger army of black pieces.

Ron, who had just noticed Ginny, watched her silently observe the board, and kept quiet himself. Her temper from earlier that afternoon was still fresh in his mind. Ron watched as his little sister stand there quietly for a few more seconds, and then she leaned down and whispered something into Harry's ear.

Harry looked at her quizzically and all she did was give him a very pointed look. He then shrugged his shoulders and ordered his castle across the board. Ron could tell that Harry really didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it.

Ron looked at the board and concluded that whatever his sister had told Harry to do, it wasn't much better than Harry himself could do. The castle was wide open and could easily be destroyed by his queen. Harry's castle was the fifth last piece he had left. Ron ordered his queen, and she knocked the castle off the board.

She gave a mischievous smile. Harry looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. All Ginny did was nod her head. Harry shrugged his shoulders and ordered his bishop, his fourth last piece, across the board. Harry and Ron stared at the board for a few moments, before Harry finally said, "Checkmate...?"

Ginny turned on her heel, satisfied that she had gotten back at Ron on her own terms, leaving two surprised boys and a small army of very angry chess pieces that were not used to losing.

Hermione arrived at the Burrow a week later. By that time, everyone had settled in and was anticipating the rest of the summer. Ginny was expected her summers to be slow, lazy, long, and hot, just how she liked them. Doing absolutely nothing was what she liked best, and she was expecting an entire month of it.

However, Ginny knew that her mother, one way or another, would find something for her to do, be it de-gnoming the garden or pulling weeds in the vegetable patch or helping to keep up with the multitudes of laundry...the many different types of chores made her head spin.

The only problem, thus far, with Ginny's summer was that it had rained the previous two days and it still hadn't stopped. It was quite depressing.

At the moment, Ginny was sitting in her room gazing dully out the window at the sheet of silver rain, her mind in a blank boredom- induced haze. Maybe doing absolutely nothing was a bit dull. Maybe it wasn't relaxing at all. Maybe, she thought, I should go find something to do.

So, consequently, Ginny spent the afternoon helping her mother tackle the multitudes of laundry that had accumulated over the week. It seemed that six people in one household made an inhuman amount of dirty clothes. It just couldn't be possible to make that much laundry, she thought to herself. But, apparently, it was possible and when suppertime decided to roll around, Ginny had made a considerable dent in the mountain of laundry.

Ginny dragged herself into the kitchen and found Ron, Harry and Hermione seated around the table. They were talking quietly and stopped talking when Ginny made her presence known by sitting down at the table. She really didn't care what they were talking about, or that they had decided that whatever it was they were talking about was not for her to hear. Ginny wasn't a snoop...although, she was a bit curious as to what they were talking about.

"Hey, Ginny," Hermione said just a bit too enthusiastically. "What have you been up to all day?" Ginny noticed that Hermione was tearing up a piece of paper. She's nervous about something, Ginny thought to herself curiously. She wondered what it was that Hermione was nervous about. Maybe she thought that Ginny had heard whatever the three had been talking about before she had come into the kitchen.

"Oh, you know..." Ginny replied, drawing out her answer, hoping to observe Hermione's nervous behaviour more closely without being noticed. She peered at Hermione's face, and noticed that Hermione was biting the inside of her cheek, a habit that she had only when she was extremely worried about something, like exams, for example. But it was the middle of the summer, so she shouldn't be worried about exams... "I was doing some laundry, enjoying some quality time with Ron's dirty old tighty whiteys, the usual."

"Ginny! That was completely uncalled for!"

She simply shrugged and walked away, happy with her tiny piece of information. She would go back into the kitchen when supper was ready.

Ginny was certain that something was up. Maybe it had to do with the Order, and no one was telling her anything, and she was the only one who didn't know anything? But no, that just made her sound paranoid and insecure, which she probably was.

She stepped onto the back porch and gazed at the sky. Dark, stormy clouds were once again gathering in the distance, but the sky, for the most part, had cleared up and was a deep blue, and the sun was low in the western sky. The beauty of the sky did not betray the turmoil that stirred the entire wizarding world.

Stepping off the porch and crossing the lush, wet grass in her bare feet, Ginny headed toward the tire swing that hung from a particularly large, old oak tree. She jumped through the tire and sat in the O, swinging back and forth, gaining height each time. Ginny closed her eyes and tipped her head back, letting it feel as if she were falling through nothingness and no one could stop her.

"Hey, Ginny!"

Someone called her from the back porch. The red headed teenager opened her eyes to the setting sun and looked up to see Harry standing just inside the door, calling her.

"Dinner's ready," He gave her a bemused smile. Ginny swinging on that tire swing...it made him smile, for some reason. Truthfully, he had been watching her for several minutes, watching her just swing back and forth, with her head thrown back and her eyes closed, imagining a different world, no doubt, almost like what he himself did so often.

She hopped down lithely from the still-rocking tire swing and followed Harry into the kitchen, relishing the peacefulness that she felt right now. It was pure innocence, just swinging on a tire swing, then walking back into the burrow for dinner over the soft, wet grass that tickled the in between your toes...perfect was the only way Ginny could possibly describe everything at that exact moment. And she wanted everything to be this way forever. Ginny knew that it was a lost cause, dreaming that things could always be perfect, but she also knew that walking to her house in her bare feet, following Harry, that was they way things were meant to be, and somehow it would turn out like this in the end.

* * *

OMFG I have no idea what this is...I have a plot in mind, but what I have planned is pretty general and I have no idea where I'm going with this...You could actually just very well ignore this chapter...its really just a prologue, but then again, its not, because I wrote nothing about the actual plot...so, right now I'm just setting the scene. That's what I'm doing. Okay? Okay. REVIEW THIS STORY! IT'S MY VERY FIRST PIECE OF POSTED FANFICTION! BE NICE! . 


	2. Poor, poor Mildred LeGray

Hi again! Thank you thank you THANKYOU for all the reviews! My squeals of happiness deafened all within a 10kilometre radius. By the by, don't kill me, yes, I realize that this chapter doesn't really get into the plot a lot at first, but it's getting there, I promise!

Dedicated to Pif for listening to me rant, giving me ideas and brain waves, and making Mildred come to life.

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"RON!" Ginny screeched. "I hope I don't kill you before I get a chance to yell at you!" She stampeded through the kitchen and out the back door to where Hermione was lazing in a beach chair reading "1000 Ways to Go About Alchemy" by Flamilda Goldstein, and Harry and Ron were flying through the sky on their broomsticks. 

Hermione's head snapped up and she looked startled as Ginny came stomping up beside her. She put down her book, but had no idea what to expect because she had no idea what Ginny was fuming about. Hermione supposed that she would have noticed what was going on around her a bit more if she hadn't been reading this book so intently, but it was just so informative and interesting, she just couldn't resist…

"Where is he Hermione? You can't hide him from me forever…" Ginny narrowed her eyes and looked to the sky, where she spotted Harry flying in circles on his Firebolt and trying hard to keep hold on his broomstick. She looked closer and noticed that Harry was laughing too hard to keep both hands on the handle. Ginny then noticed Ron, on his broomstick, hovering behind a cluster of tall trees. She began to stomp over to Ron's hiding spot and whipped out her wand.

"Ginny!" Hermione called after her, alarmed. "Ginny, we can't use magic over the holidays! You know that!" She stood from the chair she had been sitting in and dropped her book to the ground.

Ginny stopped and turned back to Hermione. "Who says I'm using this thing for magic? If you failed to notice, wands are also very pointy at the ends…perfect for gouging things…" Ginny, not to be distracted from her task, turned and began to stalk angrily toward Ron.

Harry, still laughing, looked over to Ron, who was cowering behind a large tree. "I think you better see why Ginny looks so angry Ron. She might need your help in obliterating the source of her annoyance."

"Harry, are you bloody mad? Why do you think I'm hiding? I'M the source of her annoyance!" He peeked through the branches and saw Ginny stalking toward him, wand drawn.

"She looks pretty angry. Wonder what she's going to do with her wand?"

"Bloody hell…" Ron flew higher up and deeper into the safety of the tree's branches. "Harry, keep her busy until I can get away! Go…go distract her, or something. That used to work before…"

"What the hell did you do, Ron?" Harry asked half amused by his friend's predicament, half worried for his safety. Harry looked down and saw that Ginny had arrived at the foot of the tree, and looked no less angry than she had looked when Ron had spotted her across the field by Hermione's chair.

"RON! You dolt, I could see your hiding place from across the field!" She shrilled. "Now get your arse down here this instant!" Ginny's hair flew wildly around her face, like a halo of angry fire. Harry landed on the ground beside her, ready to restrain her if she did actually try to attack with her wand. This really was just a precaution, because he didn't think Ginny was angry enough to attack. But…she sure looked like it.

"Good lord, Ron," Harry called up to him. "What did you do?" Ginny rounded on Harry and Harry automatically stepped back. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of Ginny Weasley's wrath.

"I'll tell you what he did!" She shrieked in reply. "That…that bludger of a human being," She paused for effect. "…Stole my CHOCOLATE FROGS!"

Ron finally came down from his hiding place and landed a fair distance away from Ginny. Apparently it wasn't far enough. She stormed over to Ron and began to screech at him. Harry picked out bits and pieces, but most of it was incomprehensible. He heard 'thief' and 'You WILL repay me for each and every chocolate frog' and 'those were MY chocolate frogs, you KNOW what I did to Fred when he stole my chocolate frogs last time'.

Harry chanced going a bit closer to the quarreling siblings. He really wanted to see the look on Ron's face.

Ron's face looked, in Harry's opinion, like the face of a seven-year-old who was being severely punished for eating all the cookies in the cookie jar just before suppertime. His ears were also bright red.

Hermione came up behind Harry and they both watched the scene play out before them. Ron spotted them, and the look on his face clearly spelled "HELP ME!" but Harry and Hermione decided that Ron deserved whatever punishment Ginny was screaming at him.

"What did he do?" Hermione asked slightly interested in the situation at hand, but more so, Harry noticed, in the large book she was still reading.

"Apparently, Ron stole Ginny's chocolate frogs…" Harry watched Ron get smaller and smaller and Ginny grow more and more threatening. "I do believe he's dug himself a deep grave this time."

"Ginny, I swear, I'm really, really sorry! I was just looking to see if you had Mildred LeGray…she's the only one I don't have, and I was just going to see if you had the card. I had every intention of giving back most of the chocolate. And really, you have a million chocolate frogs…it's not as if they do anything for your figure…"

An angry shriek resonated through the air. Ginny grabbed Ron's broomstick hopped on it and flew for the Burrow.

Hermione, finally watching everything with her full attention, asked Harry and Ron, who had just weakly walked up beside the two, "Has she always had this much of a temper?"

"I…really don't know. It's just sort of appeared from nowhere in the last year." Ron ran a hand through his fiery red hair. "And I really had every intention of bringing back the chocolate I hadn't eaten…" Here, he sighed. "I don't see why she's so obsessed with chocolate frogs. I swear, she has enough unopened chocolate frogs to feed all of England for a year, so I figured she wouldn't miss a couple dozen…"

"Oh, Ron…don't you know you should _never_ steal a woman's chocolate?" Hermione shook her head. "I suggest we go back to the Burrow, before Ginny breaks something, like your broom, for example."

The colour drained from Ron's face, and he took off running for the Burrow.

**xxxxxxx**

Ginny sighed and stared out her window. She nonchalantly opened a chocolate frog box and popped the frog into her mouth, then took out the card like she usually did. Staring back at her from the card was the freckled face of a young woman, with her stormy dark eyes and long curled locks of auburn hair. Ginny turned over the card and read the back.

'Mildred LeGray, 1876-1899. A muggle born witch, she was rejected and left for dead as a child. After arriving at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she became the youngest student to make a house quidditch team, playing the position of chaser. In her first year, LeGray won the quidditch cup for Gryffindor house, as well as all the years she attended Hogwarts. Best known for being the first professional female quidditch player, LeGray had a short-lived career, and died at the age of twenty-three quite suddenly from unknown causes. It is said that LeGray had abilities in the area of divination, but little is know about this. Many believe that her sudden death had something to do with these divinatory abilities.'

"Huh. Isn't that interesting." Ginny looked up out the window again, and noticed the rain was once again pouring down from the sky in silver sheets. Lightning flashed in the distance, and Ginny counted in her head until the crash of thunder could be heard. This was going to be a long summer.

Ginny stood from her perch by her bedroom window and looked at the card in her hand. The auburn haired witch blinked enigmatically at her and gave a small smile. Even in the picture, her eyes seemed to be able to see through people…

"OWWWW!"

The yell from downstairs told Ginny that her brother was still in the Burrow, and that he had clumsily walked into something again. It also reminded her that she was still angry with him for stealing her chocolate frogs. Really, the nerve of him! He apparently didn't understand that Ginny would die if she didn't have a chocolate frog every day.

She looked at the card in her hand again before saying, "Sorry Mildred. Revenge is a bit more important, in this case." Ginny tore the card into two pieces, and then held one half to a burning candle. The card was soon no more than a small pile of ashes, and a torn half that proudly said "Mildred LeGray". She would be sure to leave the defaced card where Ron could conveniently find it.

Ginny sat in the kitchen stirring a cup of tea, smiling to herself as she listened to Ron's moans of remorse.

"Ginny…how could you? No…How could you?" He sat in the den clutching the remaining piece of Mildred LeGray to his chest as Hermione and Harry sat on either side of the couch trying to console him.

"Oh Ron, its okay. It was just a pointless little chocolate frog card." Hermione patted him kindly on the back.

"But it was THE card! Mildred LeGray was the only card I needed to complete the collection and she DESTROYED IT!" Ron buried his face into his hands.

"Well, if you hadn't taken my chocolate frogs and EATEN them, I wouldn't be inclined to act so impulsively!" Ginny yelled from the kitchen.

"I do wish that you two would stop all this nonsense yelling and give me some peace and quiet!" Mrs. Weasley shrilled from upstairs.

"Really, do you think we like coming home to yelling?"

"Grates on one's nerves, it does."

Fred and George Weasley stepped out of the fireplace in a whirl of green fire and soot. Ginny got up and greeted each of them with a kiss on the cheek.

"How're you guys? I haven't seen you in absolute ages, it seems!" Ginny hit George's back with her hand and a cloud of soot rose from his midnight blue robes.

"Business is just booming, darling! Never been better!" Fred dusted soot from his own turtle shell green robes.

Mrs. Weasley walked down the stairs wiping her hands on her apron. "George! Fred! Come in, come in…Let me get you something to eat."

"Ahh…" George sighed happily. "We know we're home when we have food forcibly fed to us."

"Pure bliss, isn't it dear brother?" Fred said.

"Always, dear brother." George replied.

Harry had never seen Ron act so miserable over a chocolate frog card. He hadn't moved from the den all day, despite his own and Hermione's efforts to get him to play wizards chess or exploding snap or do something other than mope.

"Ron, come on, there are other Mildred LeGrays out there. We just need to find her! Now let's go do something. You know, I bet dinner will be ready soon…" Hermione looked up at Harry helplessly, and he shrugged his shoulders.

"The very last one I needed…" Ron moaned.

Ginny looked up from her novel to Ron sitting on the couch across the room. "I do wish that you would stop acting so depressed. It's getting really annoying. You make a grieving widow look brilliantly happy."

"Well if you hadn't incinerated this bloody card then I wouldn't be so sad, now would I?"

"How did you think I would feel about you going through my room and taking my chocolate frogs! I'm not happy, that's for sure!" Ginny threw down her book, leaving it on the ground long forgotten.

"I didn't think you'd be so touchy about a couple damn frogs, Ginny!"

"A couple? You took TWENTY-FOUR of them!"

"What does she do with so many chocolate frogs?" Harry asked Hermione quietly.

"Well, she eats them, of course. Not all at once, mind you. She knows how to eat chocolate with moderation. It's a talent, really. Not many females are able to do that with chocolate…"

They were disturbed from their quiet conversation when Fred and George walked into the den.

"What on Merlin's beard is going on in here?" Fred asked incredulously.

"Something, apparently," George replied, surveying Ron and Ginny railing at each other from opposite ends of the room, and Harry and Hermione sitting on the couch witnessing the events playing out before them.

"She ripped up Mildred LeGray and set fire to her! Do you have any idea how rare Mildred LeGray is?" Ron moaned, while brandishing the remaining half of Mildred LeGray at them.

"Oh dear," Fred said to George. He turned back to Ron. "What the devil did you do to deserve that?"

"He STOLE my chocolate frogs, that's what he did!" Ginny shrieked from the other side of the room.

"Well, Ron," Hermione said from the couch beside him. "You could at least just apologize to her…"

"Not until she apologizes for destroying the card!"

"Not in this lifetime." Ginny narrowed her eyes venomously at Ron.

Fred and George went to stand in front of Ginny. George spoke first. "Apologize now, little brother, and we'll be kind."

"Hey! Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing?" Ron asked, confused.

"I do believe they are taking Ginny's side over yours," Harry said quietly.

"Yes, Harry there has the right picture," said Fred. "Now, apologize kindly to our baby sister and pay her for the frogs…"

"Wait, wait, wait! What are you doing!" Ginny asked them incredulously.

"I thought we just went over this? We're taking sides with you." George said exasperatedly.

"I can fight my own fights much better than you!"

"Well, I think we should be able to stick up for our baby sister if we—"

"Stop with the baby sister crap!" Ginny shrieked. "I'm perfectly capable of fighting my own fights and making my own decisions, and my room is not just some little girl's play space that you can go through when you feel like it! I wish that you would all just stop treating me like a bloody child!"

With that Ginny ran through the den, through the kitchen and out the door. They could hear the door slam shut as a clap of thunder resonated through the house.

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Ohslkfj;af…I'm finished xx Ok, I'm going to say this now. If you seem to notice a lack of Voldemort, a lack of the Order, and a lack of certain characters throughout this story, it's because this author has a notorious habit of not planning things out and making horrid mistakes and forgetting things, so, bear with me okay? REVIEW! 


	3. Out in the Storm

claps happily I FINALLY have chapter three written! Sorry it took so long...probably would've taken longer if Pif hadn't been bothering me to finish it XD

squeal I DO have a plot line now! And hell, THIS ENTIRE FIC IS DEDICATED TO PIFFLE because without her, there would be no drowning, no plotline, and no chocolate frog cards. X3

I really appreciate all of the reviews! They're the highlight of my day...I have no life... --;

Now, ON WITH THE STORY, I DO SAY! har har!

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Ginny sprinted through the pouring rain, her hair plastered to her head and her thin sundress stuck to her body. "Damn," she cursed. "I wish it wasn't raining like this." At last she slowed down, her adrenalin and anger finally fizzling out.

She sighed and squinted at her surroundings through the steady down pour. It was difficult to see through the water that kept running into her eyes. Ginny pushed the hair out of her face and saw that she was near the river. It was surging with water from the constant rain of the last week.

Shivering with cold and soaked to the bone, Ginny looked around for somewhere to take shelter so she could wait for the rain to let up a bit. She wasn't going home. That wasn't an option. She didn't want to be anywhere near her home, not right now.

The weeping willow was the closest tree, so Ginny took off running toward it. It was near the raging river, and the tree shook back and forth in the howling wind. At least it was some shelter against the storm.

She shivered as she sat beneath the shaking branches of the willow. Ginny didn't know how long she would stay, she just needed some time to herself, away from the rest of the world. She needed to think things through, which was something that she rarely ever did.

Yes, maybe she had overreacted a little bit, just a little bit. But just a bit! Really, who did Ron think he was, going through her room and taking her chocolate frogs? Everyone knew how much Ginny was obsessed with, or addicted to, rather, her chocolate frogs. And Ron had just taken her frogs without asking even!

And then there were Fred and George. She appreciated the concern, really, but everyone...they were so...smothering, sometimes. Ginny knew that her little explosion was about more than just her chocolate frogs. She knew, deep down, that she had been looking for an excuse to scream. That's what she felt like doing most days.

Ginny shivered and hugged her knees to her chin. She considered going back home, but she couldn't. She just didn't want to face anyone after she had blown up. Ginny admitted it; she was now feeling ashamed of how she had acted. Truthfully, she knew, she had acted like a spoiled baby having a tantrum.

A bolt of lightning snaked across the sky, illuminating the grass, the trees and the surging river before her for just a moment before the world was again plunged into the darkness of the night. Ginny counted under her breath. One...two...a roar of thunder that she felt in her chest rumbled across the fields. She shivered again, but this time, it wasn't from lack of warmth. The storm was close.

The willow that she sat beneath shuddered in the random gusts of wind. Ginny huddled closer to the trunk, trying to get away from the relentless weather. Her feeble attempts of sheltering herself weren't making much of a difference.

Ginny peeled drenched hair from her face. As she did this, lightning again flashed through the sky, and she looked up towards the river.

Startled would have been lightly explaining what Ginny felt when she looked up at the river. She ran through a series of emotions: shock, denial, curiousness, suspicion, and finally, fear. A cloaked person stood on the opposite bank of the river, staring at her, as the rumble of thunder sounded above head.

Ginny could barely force the air out of her lungs. She could have stopped breathing and not noticed. Ginny, visibly paled, sat there, like a statue, not daring to let her heart beat. She hoped the person would just keep walking, just leave, just go somewhere far away from her. She now realized how absolutely stupid she had been, running out of the house as she had, without a thought as to where she was going, without proper clothing, without her wand. Ginny sat there, eyes wide with fear, praying that this person didn't have malevolent intentions.

She watched the figure closely, trying to discern if he had even seen her or not. Whether he had or had not, the cloaked figure wasn't doing anything. Ginny could have easily believed that the cloaked person was simply a scarecrow or something.

Ginny looked at the person, still not daring to move. She forced herself to look at every detail of the person, to ingrain the image of that person in her memory. Ginny noticed little things that she hadn't noticed before. She now knew that this person was a woman, because of the long curling locks of auburn hair that were hanging from under the hood of the dark cloak. The woman was wearing a long red dress as well; the red flowing fabric and white fringe were visible under the cloak around her feet.

The cloaked woman moved, and Ginny, startled, jumped and gasped. She clamped her hand over her mouth and froze, paralyzed with fear. She wasn't that far away...four or five metres at most. It wouldn't take much for the woman to whip out her wand and curse Ginny. She knew she had to take her chances, however slim they may be, and run.

Ginny slowly got to her feet, the rain still pounding to the ground around her, and began to inch her way around the trunk of the old willow. Maybe, just maybe, this woman wanted nothing to do with her. Maybe Ginny could run away.

Lightning suddenly flashed nearby, and the crack of thunder shook the tree behind her and rattled her eardrums. In the flash of lightning, the woman had thrown back her hood, to reveal the freckled face of a young woman with stormy gray eyes and long curled locks of auburn hair that were being drenched with rain.

Ginny stopped where she was, partly because of another sudden dose of shock and confusion, but mostly because of the fear that she felt settle in the pit of her stomach.

The stormy gray eyes pierced the sheets of rain and the blanket of darkness, and fixed themselves upon the terrified Ginny Weasley.

**xxxxxxx**

"What do you mean 'we don't know which way she ran when she ran away'!"

Fred and George cowered under the gaze of their mother, and their freckles stood out in stark contrast to their pale faces. They sat beside each other at the kitchen table with Ron, Hermione and Harry.

Ginny had exploded and ran off through the door less than ten minutes before. Mrs. Weasley had come running down the stairs and demanded what had happened when she had heard the door slam.

The five teenagers sitting at the table, quite frantically trying to explain what had happened to Mrs. Weasley, were understandably anxious and worried about the whereabouts of Ginny at the time being.

Ron looked up at Mrs. Weasley. "I did something stupid and Ginny got mad at me. And then she just exploded at took off out the door. Outside, in the rain," Ron said weakly.

Mrs. Weasley paled as the full weight of what had happened hit her. "Where...where would she go?" She glanced out the window and saw lightning flash in the sky. "We need to look for her now! Something could happen to her! She doesn't even have her wand with her...oh god, she doesn't have her wand...we need to find her! She might catch a cold, or be struck by lightning, or a dark wizard..." She ended her frantic rambling, afraid of what she might have said next.

Hermione stood from her seat and guided Mrs. Weasley to a chair and made her sit down. "Mrs. Weasley, calm down. I'm sure that Ginny is going to be fine. We'll find her, don't you worry about it," Hermione said reassuringly.

"But we need to find her now!" Mrs. Weasley looked up at Hermione the panic returning to her eyes.

"We will find her Mrs. Weasley. We'll go out right now and look for her. Nothing will happen to her, I promise," Harry said.

Harry looked at Mrs. Weasley, her face stricken with worry, and somehow reassured her that everything would turn out okay. Harry's eyes held their normal brilliant green colour, but behind that there was a fierce determination that said he would keep his promise, no matter what the cost.

Harry himself wasn't really very confident in himself at the moment, but he tried his best to seem confident. In truth, he was worried sick about Ginny. How could she have done something so reckless?

Ron turned to his mother. "We'll go out looking right now. She'll be okay. We'll bring her home safe and sound and then we can yell at her for being so stupid...or you can yell at me right now for being such a prat to her," Ron said, adding the last part shamefully.

"Never mind that right now," Fred said from beside George, some of their composure regained. They decidedly took charge of the situation at hand.

"Right," George continued. "Mum, Hermione, I want you two to check out back, the orchard, around there. Ron, Fred, take the north fields that run along the river, and Harry and I will take the fields that run along the east side. Agreed?"

Everyone gathered at the table collectively nodded.

"Does everyone have their wands on hand?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she accio-ed everyone's cloaks. There was once again the silent, collective nod. Mrs. Weasley put impervius charms on everyone's cloaks as a feeble shield against the storm.

"Try not to use your wands unless it's absolutely necessary, right? We're still not allowed to use magic over the holidays," Hermione pointed out.

"We don't need to worry about that," Harry said. "We won't need to use our wands." -Hopefully- he added in his mind. Harry gulped and glanced over at Ron. He seemed pale, and worried, and sick.

Hermione looked as if she had resolved to wear a mask of grim determination. But Harry knew her too well. He could almost see the panic alarms flashing in her head. She was afraid, for Ginny, for them, for herself.

The twins looked decidedly more serious that they usually were. They realized that this was a serious situation, that their only little sister was in potential danger, out in a storm, in a world where strange, dangerous people were on the loose. They needed to get Ginny home safe.

Mrs. Weasley herself was skittering around nervously and looked to each of the five teenagers for reassurance. Harry gave her a smile that was far more confident than he actually was.

"Stay in your pairs and don't get lost," Fred said before they went out the door, into the thundering storm. "We'll get Gin back, sure thing."

Harry could only hope he was right.

**xxxxxxx**

Ginny's mind was screaming at her to run for it, and not wait for this statuesque woman to whip out her wand and curse her. Both just stood there, waiting for the other to do something. But the only thing Ginny could do was stand there, like a deer caught in headlights, and stare into the luminous gray eyes.

The luminous gray eyes of Mildred LeGray.

Ginny had known that face when she saw it. The same thin, heart-shaped face, the splash of freckles, the piercing gray eyes, the long auburn hair...this person was Mildred LeGray, or bore a frightening resemblance.

But what...how was it possible that Mildred LeGray was standing here, in front of her? She had died nearly one hundred years before, so it couldn't be her. Wait! How could Ginny be so stupid? Of course she wasn't still alive, unless she was hiding the philosopher's stone somewhere in those great ruffles of her dress. She was a ghost. And ghosts couldn't use magic against humans. Unless Mildred was a vengeful spirit...

Their eyes locked. Mildred looked at Ginny, and as she did this her dead gray eyes slowly became more alert, aware of what was going on around her, aware of the rain that still fell around them, though not as angrily now.

Mildred looked down to her hands, as if it was a wonder that she could see them. Then she moved her hands to her face and touched it, as if she hadn't expected to feel it there. She pushed her wet auburn hair away from her face and then her eyes once again locked with Ginny's brown eyes. This time though, there was life in the eyes of her spirit. Mildred looked at Ginny, and her face held curiosity. Ginny breathed. Mildred LeGray would not harm her.

Ginny stepped forward, away from the tree and closer to the river, to Mildred. "Are you Mildred LeGray?" she asked.

Mildred looked at the girl. This girl...she knew her name. But...how? Maybe, just maybe this girl could help her. Mildred needed help. She nodded in answer to the girl's question.

As Ginny took a few more tentative steps closer it started raining hard again, but that didn't cover up the evanescent glow that Ginny now saw surrounding Mildred. She was a spirit. But why would she appear now, so many years after she had died?

In a split second Ginny was blinded by a flash of lightning and a thunderous clap above her head. She looked up to see the giant flaming branch of the willow tree fall upon her and she screamed.

**xxxxxxx**

Harry searched. And searched. And searched. He walked along the river, and called out Ginny's name, but it was lost to the howling wind. George followed, a little way behind him, and did the same.

In a split second Harry saw a bolt of lightning strike a tree in the distance and he heard a clap of thunder, followed by a scream that was cut off half way through. Harry began to run as fast as his legs could take him.

* * *

FWAAHAHHAHAHAH! CLIFF HANGER:3 Yes, evil, I am evil.

I think that some people think that Ginny overreacted. If it had just been her chocolate frogs, yes, it would have been a bit overdone. Ginny (my Ginny, at least.) is a naturally independent and headstrong person, so I find that her reacting like this is her normal way of reacting, that is, yell, scream, deafen and scare, but get over things quickly. And of course, Ginny had every right to scream at Ron like that. You NEVER go through a lady's personal space and take her CHOCOLATE of all things! X3

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Make me feel like I'm wasting my time efficiently. I've put off 2 English projects and a history assignment to finish this Hope you enjoy! Stick around for the next chapter, and I promise that the next author's note won't be so bloody long!

Muffins for whoever actually read BOTH authors notes XD


	4. The Rescue and A Dream

gasp Here it is, the infamous chapter 4! Here we find out what happens to our poor Ginny, and we find out if Harry gets to her in time! What happens if he doesn't? gasp Read on ahead to find out! gasp …I better stop gasping before someone thinks I'm hyperventilating…

ON WITH THE FIC!

* * *

Harry sprinted through the pouring rain, his hair plastered to his head, and his soaking cloak, the impervious charm not really doing much good, was billowing out behind him. "Damn," he cursed. "I wish it wasn't raining like this." Harry only ran faster, willing his legs to move forward. Adrenalin and fear was coursing through his body.

That had been Ginny's voice he'd just heard, her scream. Harry didn't know what he would find when he got there, he didn't know what to expect. He just wanted Ginny to be OK. He didn't know what he'd do if…Oh God, Harry thought.

He pushed himself to run faster, only concentrating on finding Ginny.

**xxxxxxx**

A flash of light…the sound of something cracking loudly…the smell of burning wood…and then falling. She faintly remembered screaming as well. This was what ran through Ginny's head. She was trying to remember what she was doing. She felt like going back to sleep, like she had been woken up on a Saturday morning far too early. Ginny opened her eyes, looking for her alarm clock to see what time it was, but all she could see was darkness, swirling darkness all around her. She suddenly realized that she was in water. She suddenly realized that she couldn't breathe.

"Help!" Ginny screamed, thrashing around, trying to figure out which way was up. But the plea for help sounded dull to her ears, and she knew that no one had heard her.

Ginny stopped thrashing around. The peaceful nothing was closing in on her again, and she was just too tired to keep pointlessly struggling like that. I'll just sleep for another ten minutes, Ginny thought to herself as she succumbed to the darkness.

Mildred stared at the spot where the girl had stood moments before. That girl…she had known that she was Mildred LeGray. She hadn't seemed to be a bad person. On the contrary, she seemed like a person who always tried to do the right thing, but at the same time, she was a person who marched to a different beat. That girl…Mildred knew that she would help. Mildred needed her help. But that girl needed her help first.

Mildred walked (hovered, rather) downstream in the direction she had seen the girl float away. At last, she spotted the bright yellow material floating on the water's surface, but the girl's face was below. Mildred had to move quickly to keep up with the rapidly flowing water.

She_ wanted_ to save this girl, to be able to pick her up and out of the water. Ghosts could not pick up solid objects. She knew that ghosts could only pick up and touch solid objects with years of practice and immense will power. Then again, she wasn't exactly an everyday ghost. She thought of herself as more of a wandering spirit than a ghost. Even so, Mildred had never tried this before. She hoped that she could save this girl.

Mildred gathered together all of her will power, and then she closed her eyes and imagined herself solid, imagined being able to hold someone and being able to pick them up. She could do it.

She walked over to the water's edge and grabbed the yellow sundress that floated atop the water's surface. Her hand went right through it. She pooled her concentration and tried again. She reached out for the girl's arm and held on, pulling her closer. Then she held her by both arms and pulled her onto the riverbank. Mildred sighed with relief. She had done it.

Mildred looked at the girl's face. Her translucent pale face was peaceful. She didn't move. Not at all. The girl wasn't breathing. She didn't know how she would help her now.

Suddenly, Mildred heard someone yell in the distance. She looked up and saw a boy running through the rain, his cloak billowing out behind him. Mildred knew that this boy would take care of her.

She was about to leave, but she stopped. I can't let this boy see me, but I can't lose this girl. She can help me, she thought. Maybe…if I just…

Mildred knew that what she was contemplating wouldn't be too dangerous, but it would have its own little complications all the same.

She didn't have much time to think it over. His running figure was closer every minute. She could hear him yelling "Ginny!" through the storm.

Finally, with one last look at the boy, Mildred looked down at the pale red haired girl and said, "I'm sorry I have to do this, Ginny."

She put her hand of Ginny's face and her glowing figure disappeared inside her.

**xxxxxxx**

As Harry ran closer, he thought he saw two figures by the river, one kneeling over another. But in a flash of lightning, the other figure was gone, leaving Harry to think that his imagination was playing tricks on him. But there was still another figure by the river, lying on the ground, not moving. The bottom fell from Harry's stomach. "Ginny," he whispered to himself.

Harry flew to the ground, beside Ginny's still body. "Oh God, Ginny…wake up, please," He whispered pleadingly. He rolled her onto her back, and then pressed two fingers to the side of her neck. Her pulse was weak, but it was still there. He then put his fingers under her nose. Harry's breath caught in his throat. She wasn't breathing.

It was at this time that George flew up behind Harry, his freckles standing out on his pale face. "No…God no." His heavy breathing was shaky and he drew in a deep shuddering breath every few seconds.

"She…she's not breathing," Harry said urgently.

"What do we do? How do we make her start breathing again?"

Harry wiped the water from his glasses, just noticing that the rain had miraculously stopped for the most part. "We need to start breathing for her."

"But she needs a healer!"

"We don't have time for that."

Harry furiously raked his brain, thinking back to the times that he would peek into the living room of the Dursley's house and watch the television with them, without their knowledge, of course. He remembered seeing characters giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in many television programs, and Harry hoped that he would do it right.

He tipped Ginny's head back and plugged her nose. Then he opened her mouth and took a deep breath. 1…2…3…4…5…Harry then stopped to see if she was breathing yet. She wasn't. "Please Ginny, breathe." He tried again. Nothing. "Please...please Ginny..." Still nothing.

Harry breathed life into her one more time, and her eyes snapped open. Ginny's body convulsed and she turned onto her side as her lungs emptied themselves of the water that she had ingested. Harry patted her on the back as she coughed, and he heard George audibly let out the breath he had been holding behind him.

Ginny finished coughing, and then she just sat there breathing deeply. Then she looked at Harry, and then at George. "I'm sorry…I was only going to sleep for another ten minutes. I suppose I overslept…" She said weakly.

"Oh God, Gin," George crouched beside her and hugged her tightly. "Don't worry Gin, you're delirious. We'll get you back to the Burrow safe and sound."

"No…no, wait," She murmured quietly. "What happened to Mildred?" Harry's mind flashed back to the image of another figure leaning over Ginny.

"Who's Mildred?" He asked.

"The woman…I saw her by the river…LeGray…and she had long auburn hair…and those piercing gray eyes…then the lightning…hit the tree behind me…and I fell in…"

Ginny couldn't string more than five words together at once. George then picked her up and, with Harry following, they slowly made their way back to the burrow.

**xxxxxxx**

"Oh my…Ginny…what happened…is she…has she woken up…where did you find…Thank goodness…we still need to…healer…how long…what was she thinking…"

Ginny heard random words as she slowly regained consciousness. But her semi-consciousness drifted back into a dream-state, and she heard the voices slowly fade away.

When Ginny opened her eyes again, she wasn't in her room, in fact, she wasn't at the Burrow at all. For some reason, unbeknownst to her, she was standing in the quidditch pitch at Hogwarts. Ginny wasn't wearing her yellow sundress anymore. She was wearing something that she had never seen in her closet. She wasn't even wearing quidditch robes.

Ginny was dressed in a long red dress. She immediately noticed that this dress had a numerous and unnecessary number of skirts and layers. Along the edges of the dress there was a gold lining, and also around the edges of the long sleeves. At least it wasn't unbearably hot. It was actually quite mild and windy. The sun shone bright though, so it evened out to a nice spring day. But its August, Ginny thought to herself, puzzled.

Two hands suddenly clamped themselves over Ginny's eyes, and she shrieked in surprise. "Guess who?" A male voice said teasingly from behind her, Ginny assumed, the owner of the hands.

"Oh, I just can't imagine who this could be, standing behind me with their hands clamped over my face so," Ginny found herself saying with light laughter in her voice. She realized that she hadn't meant to say that, and that she had no control over what she said.

The voice behind her laughed and removed his hands. "Wonderful to see you too, Millie." Ginny turned around. She was slightly startled at being called Millie, but she was even more so startled, if that was possible, when she saw the face of this person who at come up behind her. He had barely controlled black hair, and a calm and composed demeanor. Small, square spectacles framed large, clear brown eyes. With his tall, athletic physique, Ginny would have mistaken this person for Harry Potter if she hadn't known better. She was somewhat disturbed by the resemblance.

Ginny had meant to ask who he was and why he had come up behind a complete stranger and grabbed her, but instead, what had come out was, "Don't you worry a bit Ari. I always find it wonderful to see you." She laughed, again. "Now, what you need to worry about is making sure you don't get caught grabbing a lady from behind like that, like a common place fool with no manners and no knowledge whatsoever of how to treat a lady."

Ari made a face, but it looked as if he was trying hard not to smile. "I'm going to take that as an insult."

"Do as you wish, kind sir." Ginny found herself lifting her skirts and curtsying. Then she turned and flew away on the broomstick that had been on the ground beside her.

Ginny felt her hair streaming out behind her as she flew around the stadium. She looked down to the ground below her and searched for the boy, Ari. He was nowhere to be seen.

"You'd better hope that Professor Triggus doesn't see us out here. We'll get into a fair amount of trouble if she does."

He had come up behind her so suddenly and so quietly that he had startled Ginny. She jumped and lost her grip on the broom, fell forward, and then began to lose her grip and fall to the side. She was going to fall off the side of the broom, forty feet from the ground. Suddenly, she felt strong arms catch her, and hold her up until she was safely balanced on her broomstick once again.

"Come on, let's land."

Ginny aimed her broom downward, and was safely grounded a few seconds later. She closed her eyes, and then took a deep breath to calm herself. Ari landed beside her.

"Are you okay?" Ari asked concernedly. His clear brown eyes searched her face, his brows knitted together with worry.

Ginny felt her head nodding up and down. "Yes, yes, I'm fine, you don't need to get all worrisome over me."

"But that was entirely my fault. If I hadn't been to thick-headed…"

"Ari, just close your mouth." She smiled. "Let's go back to the castle for lunch. I am famished."

Ginny turned to walk away, but Ari caught her hand. "Millie…" He said quietly. She searched his face for some clue as to what he wanted. "You know that I don't know what I would do if something ever happened to you, right?"

"Ari…" She spoke his name softly. There was an expression on his face that she couldn't decipher.

"May I kiss you?" He asked suddenly. She felt herself nod slowly. He suddenly brought his lips to hers, lightly and unsure at first, but it deepened as she responded.

They broke apart, and stood in front of each other breathing for a few moments. Ginny (or Millie, I suppose) smiled lightly. She took Ari's hand and started walking. "Let's go to the castle now."

It was suddenly dark.

The voices suddenly faded in.

Ginny's eyes snapped open, and she looked around at the various faces above her. She saw…her mother, and her father too…Fred and George were there as well…Ron and Hermione were standing in the corner, and a woman stood above her, peering into her eyes and tapping and poking her with a wand. Then beside Ron and Hermione was…Ari? No, it was Harry. It was just Harry.

The witch spoke. "She'll be perfectly fine. Just rest her up for a day and she'll be good as new." Here, she turned to Harry and George. "You two are lucky that you got to her when you did. Saved her life with those muggle techniques, you did."

Fred, George left the room, to walk the healer to the door. Mr. Weasley moved beside Ginny's bed, and Mrs. Weasley sat down on the end. She moved a stray lock of hair from Ginny's forehead. "I'm so glad you're okay," She choked out tearfully.

"Mum…? Dad…" Ginny said weakly. She was suddenly very, very tired. She just wanted to fall into the dark oblivion again.

Mr. Weasley moved to Ginny's side and held her hand. "Just rest for now, Gin dear." He gingerly placed her hand back down and pulled his wife away from her bed.

When they had left, Ron cautiously approached Ginny's bedside. "Sorry I took your frogs, Gin. I'll replace them for you, every last one."

Ginny sighed. "It doesn't matter Ron. Forget about it. I have a million more frogs hidden around my room." She smiled. "And stop looking so worried. I'll be fine."

Harry and Hermione stood back a bit, waiting for Ron. Ginny looked at Harry and smiled. He smiled back.

Ginny let her eyes fall closed, and let herself fall into the blessed state of sleep.

* * *

AHHH I'm done Xx I should be doing other things right now, but I'm not. Now I've wasted my entire Saturday. But really, I don't care. That much. Because I have finished, it chapter 4! I am happy. Oh yes, and I realize that my profile said I wouldn't be back until July, but…you know, I'm inspired right now. XD

NEXT CHAPTER: Look forward to more Millie, more kissing, more Ron acting like a fool, more hitting on Hermione, more dreams, more explosions, more kissing, more confusion and more chocolate frogs!


	5. Ginny's Torture and a Kiss

A/N: Ehehe...Yeah…I've only been writing this chapter for, what, 5 months now? Sorry…its here now…I'll try to update more, but I'm pretty busy. Anyway, on with the fic! har har!

* * *

Ginny opened her eyes. Bands of light streamed through the partially opened windows. She simply stared around the bright, illuminated room for an undetermined amount of time. She wasn't sure whether she had drifted off into sleep again, but suddenly Bill was kneeling beside her bed. "Bill?" she said quietly.

"Hey, Gin. How're you feeling?" Bill asked when he noticed her looking up at him. His brow furrowed slightly with concern.

Yawning, Ginny sat up in her bed. "Very much well-rested," she replied as she quickly wiped a trail of drool from the side of her face. "When did you get here? I didn't know you were coming."

"Well, I decided to take my holidays a couple weeks early, and surprise everyone. I arrived back here last night just as the healer was leaving. Merlin's beard, I was pretty scared for a few seconds. Didn't know what had happened, or if you were okay."

"Sorry to make you worry, Bill…"

Bill leaned forward and gave her a peck on the forehead. "Don't be sorry, it's not your fault at all. Come down to breakfast if you're up to it." Bill stood and walked out her opened bedroom door, closing it behind him.

Ginny fell back onto her pillows again, and stared at the ceiling. She went through yesterday's events one by one in her head, trying to organize everything, because it all felt like an overwhelming, jumbled mess.

She remembered being angry with Ron for stealing her chocolate frogs, and then being angry with him for most of the day, then she remembered Ron being terribly depressed about the Mildred LeGray card that she had ripped up---

"Mildred LeGray," Ginny breathed quietly to herself. She remembered Mildred LeGray. After she had angrily run off into the thunderstorm she had seen Mildred LeGray across the river. Ginny shuddered. Had that been Mildred's ghost? Well, of course it wasn't the _real_ Mildred, because if it were her then she would've been a lot older looking. The card said that she had been born in--- what was it ---1876? More than a hundred years ago. What was it that she wanted? Ginny wondered. Either way, it was unmistakable. That person had definitely looked a lot like Mildred LeGray. Of course, she hadn't had a chance to really verify that because that was when the lightning had struck the tree behind her. But even so, she bore a very strong resemblance to her.

What had happened after that? Ginny thought for a moment. She remembered screaming when the tree fell over…she must have hit her head on something, because everything was completely blank after that. Wait…Ginny remembered being pulled out the water…and then she remembered…

Ginny's eyes opened wide. Her face flushed red down to her neck as she remembered what had happened after she had been pulled out of the river. She vaguely remembered everything, but it was undeniable…that Harry had…

She gulped. She couldn't finish that though. She…Ginny was over…she didn't…_like_ him…But there was no denying it. Harry's…Harry Potter's _lips _had been on hers. Ginny reasoned with herself. It was only mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, its not as if he was kissing me. _But it was pretty darn close_, the voice at the back of Ginny's head whispered.

Putting that issue out of her mind for another time, Ginny plowed on through her foggy mind and though of what had happened after that. She remembered that George had picked her up and carried her back to the Burrow. What happened after that, Ginny wasn't exactly sure. There was the healer, and everyone was in her room while the healer was there, and her mum and dad were standing over her bed, and Fred and George were there too, and so were Ron, Hermione and Harry.

Ginny groaned and rested her forehead on her knees as she pulled them up to her chest. How could she have been so stupid? Why had she acted like such a…baby? Looking back now, she realized how stupid and immature she had acted the night before. She needed to apologize to everyone, especially her mother.

Ginny pushed back her blankets and swung her legs over the side. She felt as if she were forgetting something…But Ginny simply put it out of her head and decided not to dwell on it. A loud rumble emanated from Ginny's stomach region, reminding her that she was feeling quite hungry.

Quickly changing out of the wrinkled yellow sundress that she still wore from yesterday and into clean jeans and a red sweatshirt, Ginny padded barefoot down the rickety steps and into the kitchen.

Every Weasley and otherwise (being Harry and Hermione) looked up at Ginny as she entered the kitchen. "Morning everyone," She chirped quietly. She took a seat at the worn oak table and pulled a mug and the teapot toward her.

Mrs. Weasley scurried to Ginny's side. "Ginny dear, how are you feeling?" Mrs. Weasley held the back of her hand to her forehead. Ginny ignored the fussing and reached for a stack of toast in the middle of the table.

"Like I could eat a dragon, actually," She replied before she took a bite of the porridge she had dished out for herself. "Could you pass down the strawberry jam Fred?" He did so, and Ginny spread a liberal amount onto three slices of toast.

"I could have brought you your breakfast in bed, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as she poured more tea into Ginny's cup and stirred in some honey.

"No, mum, really, I'm feeling absolutely fine, if not a bit shaken up," Ginny said, sighing. She watched her mum bustle around the kitchen over her steaming mug of tea, and wondered if things would ever be back to normal again.

Deciding suddenly that this was a better time than ever to say her apologies, she cleared her throat. Mrs. Weasley stopped, and everyone looked up from his or her plates. "I'm sorry…that I acted like such a baby and nearly got myself killed. It was stupid, and over something stupid, and…and I'm sorry."

Mrs. Weasley walked over beside Ginny, and looked down at her with a tight smile, like she was trying to hold back tears again, which made Ginny feel guilty again. "Oh, Ginny…" was all that Mrs. Weasley managed to say. Ginny looked up from where she was staring at her lap, to see Harry's small smile, which seemed to pull at something in her memory. She simply smiled back.

During the rest of breakfast, it was generally quiet, except for Harry, Hermione and Ron who were talking quietly amongst themselves, Fred and George planning something secretively at the corner of the table, and Ginny herself who was trying to convince Mrs. Weasley (and failing miserably) that she didn't need to be fussed over so.

"Mum, I'm not going to be able to eat another bite, so could you just stop piling all those sausages onto my plate?" Ginny asked pleadingly. She looked helplessly at the mountain of sausages that he mother intended for her to consume. She couldn't possibly eat everything on her plate without vomiting sometime in between mouthfuls.

Pushing her plate away, the mountain of sausages untouched, Ginny gave Mrs. Weasley a look and said, "If, per chance, I get hungry, I'll finish those later." She stood from the table and began to gather dishes and small plates of butter and jam, but Mrs. Weasley came up beside her and forcefully grabbed the dirtied dishes from her hands.

"You are NOT doing any work when you're still in such a delicate condition, Ginevra Weasley!" Placing the dishes back onto the table, Mrs. Weasley took Ginny by the shoulders and drove her toward the den. "You're going to relax, and rest today."

"Not while you're in such a _delicate_ condition, _Ginevra_ Weasley!" Ron mocked quietly as Ginny was herded past him, Harry, and Hermione. Ginny sent him glares of death in return.

"Ronald Weasley, stop provoking your sister or you will be de-gnoming the garden for the rest of the summer!" Ronald cowered beside Harry as his mother led Ginny into the den to lie down on the couch. Harry looked at Hermione out of the corner of his eye and the two broke into fits of laughter.

Ron, gaining some composure, slumped in his chair, and, ripping a piece of toast in half and stuffing it into his mouth, imitated quietly to himself, "Or you will be de-gnoming the garden for the rest of the summer!"

Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out from the den. "I HEARD that Ronald!"

**xxxxxxx**

The day dragged on for Harry as he, Hermione, and Ronald sat on chairs in the backyard, battling the humidity and sun with flimsy paper fans. The three sat lazily, far too overheated to say much (except for a groan or a grunt here and there), and watched the lawn gnomes cautiously hopping the picket fence and moving back into the garden.

After sitting in silence for quite some time, Hermione, while wrestling her hair (being twice as bushy as it usually was) into a scrunchy, wondered aloud, "I wonder where Ginny is? I haven't seen her all afternoon."

Ron leaned back in his chair, squinting his eyes against the sun. "Being forcibly fed chicken soup under a pile of blankets and given loads of chocolate, I reckon." He bent over the side of the chair and snapped up the large tome Hermione had given up reading (5875 Ways to Ace Your NEWTS by Gladiola Maglioli). Ron moved to rip out a few pages to make another fan (his had gotten a bit flimsy from waving it about too quickly), but Hermione hit him over the head with her own makeshift paper fan and snatched the book out of his grasp.

Harry looked over at Ron and Hermione, both once again silent. He hadn't said anything, or spoken to either of them really about what had happened the night before, partially because it was a sensitive subject with Ron, and mostly because none of them wanted to speculate or think about what could have happened if Harry hadn't been there. He sat back in his lawn chair, and rubbed the goose bumps on his arms. It wasn't cold outside at all; in fact, the heat from the sun was beating down relentlessly upon the three teens. But just thinking about yesterday night, it made his heart race and his breathing to quicken. It had scared him so much. Harry didn't want to think about what would have happened if he hadn't been able to save her…

They sat in silence for another few minutes, each with their own thoughts. Ron, he could tell, was once again brooding about Ginny, angry with himself as well as trying not to think of what could have happened to her; Hermione had continued to read, but her mind wasn't on the book. The words that she read never seemed to reach her brain, as her thoughts were occupied with fear about what could have happened to Ginny as well. Harry was replaying the previous night in his head. Her lips, he thought offhandedly, even though they were so cold, they were nonetheless soft…Harry blushed furiously at the thought, ashamed for thinking such a thing, and immediately tried to think of something different. 'Err…snifflers…Snape…good God no, what am I thinking…whipped cream…pumpkin juice…' he thought frantically.

Ron looked up at Harry with a puzzled expression on his face. "Alright mate?" He raised an eyebrow, and Hermione snapped her eyes up from the page in her book.

"Err…yeah, nothing." Harry coughed, feeling slightly guilty. "How about we go do something inside? This heat is getting a bit much, suffocating from this humidity…"

Ron looked at Harry quizzically, and then said, "Sure, I want some more lemonade anyway." He stood and turned to face Harry and Hermione, waiting for them before leading the way into the Burrow.

Hermione glanced at Harry, and his tinged cheeks, out of the corner of her eye. She laughed silently to herself, and tried to suppress a smile. She wasn't positive what he had been thinking about, but she had a good idea.

**xxxxxxx**

"Come on, just another bite, that's it dear..."

"But I can't eat any more…you've been force feeding me all morning…"

"Oh dear…your face is all flushed! Have you got a temperature? You have!"

"If I have a temperature, its because I've been packed under five wool blankets on a thirty-five degree day."

"Oh my…let me get you some more soup and potion…"

"Mum, you know, really, I'm feeling amazing, great, better than I have in ages, JUST LET ME GO!"

This is what met the ears of Harry, Ron and Hermione as they walked through the kitchen toward the den where Mrs. Weasley had apparently been keeping Ginny hostage. What met their eyes was a frazzled looking Ginny, who had jumped up from beneath the pile of blankets, he vibrant hair flying in every direction. With a pleading look in her eyes, she mouthed "SAVE ME" to the three that had just entered the room.

Taking the initiative, Hermione started. "Mrs. Weasley!" She cried, and then paused, unsure of what to say next. She turned to Ron, eyes wide, asking for some back up.

"Err…mum, you know, those lawn gnomes are getting really horrid back there. I think we should get a good crack at them before they really take over."

Mrs. Weasley sighed, and said, "Ron, you know how to take care of them, why don't you do it? I'm slightly preoccupied right now…"

"But mum, you know that when you yell at them they get the message extra clear and sometimes don't come back for weeks…I think its due time for a good yell at them." Ron silently prayed that Mrs. Weasley would buy his story and leave Ginny alone; it was the least he could do.

"Oh yes, I do think those gnomes are asking for a yelling this time. You should've seen them, moving in over the fences by the dozen!" Hermione added in. "We'll help you! I think we should get to it as soon as possible."

Mrs. Weasley was silent for a moment, and then said, "I do suppose those gnomes can't wait…" Harry sighed with invisible relief when Mrs. Weasley stood to go outside. Harry, Ron and Hermione moved to follow Mrs. Weasley out of the den, when she suddenly whirled around and said, "Harry, dear, keep an eye on Gin would you? Ron and Hermione will help me."

Harry's heart beat stopped, and his stomach clenched. Somehow, he was furiously embarrassed to be alone in a room with Ginny. "Al…all right," He spoke up to Mrs. Weasley. The two teenagers and Mrs. Weasley moved out of the den, and Harry swore Hermione gave his a small wink over her shoulder, but he probably imagined it.

Sitting down stiffly on the couch, Harry asked, "So…I hope you're feeling good today…" Harry had never felt this uncomfortable with Ginny before…It wasn't as if they had actually really kissed…he did it in order to save her life. But still…

"I was actually, but I feel more like I'm going to vomit right now…I can't believe I've consumed so much food…" She groaned and took a seat beside Harry on the couch, but was careful to put lots of space between them. She was still slightly…embarrassed…about what had happened the night before.

"Well…I'm just glad you're okay…" Ginny looked over to Harry. He stared straight ahead, not looking at her. She couldn't help but look away and smile to herself.

Harry, about to say something else, turned to speak to Ginny, but her saw her eyes suddenly droop closed, and her head fell forward onto her chest. "Gin?" He said tentatively. He nudged her shoulder. "Gin, are you awake?" She didn't move. Harry began to panic, when her eyes opened again, slowly.

They eyes that Harry met were gray.

Harry was positive that Ginny's eyes were a deep shade of milk chocolate.

Harry felt a sudden nervous flipping sensation in his stomach. He inched closer to the changed Ginny, who still seemed to be staring ahead. Something had happened to her, something that wasn't normal.

"Ari…couldn't be you…is it?" Ginny, with her gray eyes, looked up at Harry. Her eyes were half closed, as if she were still waking up, not quite completely there. Why had she called him Ari?

"Gin, are you there? Is that still you there?" The dread in the pit of his stomach was growing. Harry was about to yell for help. There was something seriously wrong.

"Ari, it's really you, isn't it? It has to be you…you look like him."

"Gin, my name is Harry, can't you remember?"

"You need to listen to me…something's going to happen, that's why they went after me, they had to keep me from warning him…"

"What?" Harry stood and was about to run for Ron and Hermione and Mrs. Weasley when Ginny grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving.

"You need to listen to me, you must believe me…" The gray eyes in Ginny's face filled with tears of desperation. "I've missed you so much…" She pulled herself up from the couch and in a second had pressed her lips softly to his. Harry froze, not thinking, not moving. His arms were limp at his sides, useless. Ginny had her left arm grasping his, and her hand on his cheek.

His mind was a blank, but he didn't do anything to stop what was happening. The only thing that ran through his mind in the five seconds their lips were touched together was how absolutely amazing this felt.

Harry suddenly noticed that something was different, and his intuitive senses were confirmed when Ginny's chocolate brown eyes snapped open and shoved him away from her.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

Harry cringed. "What was I doing? What was with you? Can you even remember the last 2 minutes?"

"WHAT---Err…no, actually, I…I…"

"You can't remember anything at all?"

Ginny stopped, unsure of herself now. "What…what happened? Just now?"

"I don't know." Harry ran his hand through his hair. "You…you turned into a different person."

"I…what?" Ginny's eyes were wide, and afraid. "What do you mean I turned into a different person? I remember feeling slightly nauseous and closing my eyes, then I opened my eyes and you were, standing there plastered to my face!"

Harry cringed again. "I was sitting on the couch and your head drooped forward, and then you snapped your head up again, and your…your eyes were a different colour. They weren't brown. They were gray."

"How…how does that work? Are you sure that you weren't, I don't know, imagining it or something?"

"I don't think I'd randomly hallucinate something like that."

"That still doesn't explain how you became attached to my face."

Harry's face went red. "You…you started calling me Ari, and you tried to warn me about something…you said something about 'they' keeping you from warning 'him'. And…err…that's when you grabbed me by the arm and…err…kissed me."

Ginny's face was a bright shade of red. She…herself…had…oh God…Why had…what had happened to her? She began to call him Ari. For some reason, that pulled at her memory, like it reminded her of a dream that she had had but couldn't remember for the life of her. She cleared her throat. "Err…I didn't do anything else, did I?" she asked quietly.

"No, no…you didn't." Harry looked at Ginny, then moved toward the door to the kitchen, motioning for her to follow. "Come on, we need to tell someone what happened…" Harry suddenly stopped, and whirled around on Ginny. "You agree to leave out the entire…last bit, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes of-of course, right," Ginny stammered, face still bright red.

Harry knew he should be more worried about what had happened to Ginny, but…he had –actually- kissed her this time. He was… 'STOP thinking about it, it meant absolutely nothing, she wasn't herself…" Harry thought to himself forcefully. He had more important things to pay mind to at the moment. Harry led the way out to the garden, Ginny following behind.

Both of them were still shaken up by what had happened to Ginny, but neither was very regretful about the kiss.


	6. The Temper of Ginny Weasley

Happy Christmas, New Years, Easter, Hanukkah, etc. You know, all the holidays that have passed in the last 7 months that I went missing off the face of the earth. Yes, I'm back, and hoping to finish this off this summer. However, that just might be another of my patented Empty Promises.

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Ginny moved to follow Harry out the back, then stopped. "Harry…" she began quietly. He stopped as well, and turned to her.

"What is it?" There was still the resonance of a pink tinge on his cheeks.

"I…I don't want to tell them what happened."

Harry started. "Why? Why not? What if something serious has happened to you?" His mind, for some reason, flashed to the moment when he imagined that he had seen a person standing over Ginny by the river.

"Harry," She pleaded. "Have you seen what my mother has been putting me through today? She wouldn't allow me to go to school if she found something else were wrong with me."

"Maybe you shouldn't go to Hogwarts if there's something wrong with you!" Harry backed down when he saw the indignant look on Ginny's face. "Gin, I'm just worried that something might have happened to you when you nearly got hit by that lightning."

Ginny looked down, touched by his concern. "I promise I'll tell someone if it happens again. I won't go anywhere by myself either…not that mum would let me, anyway."

Harry was still apprehensive. "What if its like what happened your first year? What if this is dark magic at work? What if its…" He didn't voice his fearful thoughts immediately. "…What if Voldemort's behind this?"

Ginny bit her lip. That could be entirely possible. She remembered clearly what had happened during her first year; she still occasionally had nightmares. He had possessed her, and it had started out the same way…blackouts, forgetting where she had been for large chunks of time… "You don't possibly think…he…" Ginny's eyes, wide and fearful, gazed up at Harry's. "What if he is?

"You know, it probably isn't anything like that," Harry said quickly. He didn't want to scare her, although he didn't believe his words himself. "But we should tell someone. Ginny, its not exactly normal to lose consciousness and suddenly change eye colour."

But Ginny's adamancy had returned. "You know, I still don't want to. I think we should just wait, and see what happens. I don't feel…the same as I did during first year. Back then it was a bad feeling that I felt…like I was being engulfed. Now…I'm not sure what I feel. I think its something, but it's not the same. I'm not sure quite how to explain it, I've just begun to feel it…" She was curious to know what this…presence was. She has just noticed it, subtle as it was. She wanted to know, dangerous as it could be.

Harry's frustration was growing. It was like arguing with a brick wall. "Ginny, this is serious! Why are you ignoring this?"

"I don't need someone to dictate what I should and should not do, thank you very much. I've already got enough people to fill that position." Really, the nerve of him! Ginny thought to herself angrily.

"Look, why are you being so thick headed about this? You just _turned into another person_!" He emphasized the last part of the sentence. Harry ran his hand through his hair, giving him a rather disheveled look. "Why aren't you being more careful about this? I've already had to save your arse twice."

Harry seriously regretted saying this before the words even left his mouth. The expression on Ginny's face was hurt, and she looked at Harry disbelievingly for a moment, before her face slipped into a neutral expression.

"You never _had_ to save anyone's arse. Especially mine."

"Ginny…Gin, I…I didn't mean it like that…"

"YOU KNOW WHAT HARRY? I know EXACTLY what you meant! Sorry for being a burden."

Harry's voice was suddenly angry. "You were never a burden! And if you'd LISTEN for two minutes-" It was at this precise moment that Ron and Hermione walked through the door.

"We aren't interrupting something, are we?" Ron looked back and forth at Harry and Ginny, alarmed at the volume of their voices and their stances at either side of the oak table.

"No you didn't Ron. In fact, we're done here." Ginny said, frighteningly quiet.

At this moment Mrs. Weasley walked through the back door. If she had noticed anything amiss, she didn't let on. There was a lively pink tinge on her cheeks, and she laughed and said, "Sure told them, didn't we Ron? I do believe those gnomes are gone for a month this time!" Brushing her hands off on her apron, she stopped, and then noticed Ginny and Harry standing with a considerable distance between them, and Ron and Hermione looking desperately at Harry and Ginny.

"What's going on?" Mrs. Weasley asked, perplexed. She'd already been through three teenage boys, so she knew when something was amiss.

"Absolutely nothing now," Ginny answered, shooting venom at Harry.

"I know something when I see it…and Ginny dear, why are you standing up? You shouldn't strain yourself so."

That set Ginny off. "Yes. I shouldn't stand BECAUSE STANDING IS SUCH STRENUOUS EXERCISE."

"Ginevra-" Mrs. Weasley didn't have a chance to splutter out her entire name because Ginny stormed up the stairs then, leaving a fiery, angry trail in her quake.

Mrs. Weasley was bewildered. "Really," She said, scandalized that her daughter had taken that tone with her. "Really, what has gotten into her?" She moved to the sink to wash her hands, all the while muttering to herself.

Ron and Hermione both grabbed one of Harry's arms and pulled him into the den.

"What in the world did you say to her!" Hermione said in an angry whisper.

"Yeah mate, you got her really upset…" Ron said weakly. "I think she's more angry at you than she was at me for the frogs."

Harry opened his mouth to recount what had happened less than ten minutes previous, but then quickly shut it. Should he tell them what had happened? Or would that just make Ginny even angrier with him? For some reason that he didn't really want to consider, he didn't want Ginny to be angry with him. That was the last thing he wanted.

"Err…I told her that she should probably rest up a bit more and listen to your mother…can never be too safe…you know…" Harry trailed off, hoping they would buy his feeble story.

Ron shook his head. "You should know enough by now to see how vicious she can be when you try and tell her what to do." He appeared to wince slightly at a memory.

Hermione looked suspicious, but didn't say anything. "Come on," She said finally. "Let's go see about some lemonade, I'm parched."

They walked back into the kitchen with Harry trailing behind them, wondering to himself if he had made a mistake by not telling what had happened to Ginny.

_**xxxxxx**_

Harry breathed in the fresh air. He was glad to be away from all the noise. It was true that he loved staying at the Burrow, but there was rarely ever a quiet moment with so many people in the house.

At the moment he was sitting under a red delicious apple tree off to the side of the Weasley's property. For the most part, he was hidden from the goings-on of the household, and couldn't be seen unless one stared for a few moments at the spot where he was sitting; it was twilight and he was concealed in the shadows.

He hadn't had a moment to speak with Ginny about what had happened earlier that afternoon. She just wasn't seeing reason. Harry had to convince her to tell someone…otherwise, he would have to tell someone for her. He winced as he imagined her temper, but as he also imagined the possibilities of leaving this problem unattended. He felt that the consequences of Ginny being hurt were far more frightening than her temper, difficult as if was to believe.

It wouldn't be very surprising if it were some sort of attack on the Weasley family. They were very involved with the Order, and attacks from Voldemort were becoming more and more commonplace. Harry, frustrated, could only sit back and watch. 'At least the Ministry is acknowledging his return,' He scoffed to himself.

What he couldn't figure out was how Ginny was being possessed. Harry was sure Ginny knew enough about dark objects by now to stay away from them, so he found it unlikely that she were being possessed by another one of Voldemort's diaries.

Another thing he couldn't figure out was why Ginny (or the gray-eyed Ginny, rather) had said what she had said specifically. What was she trying to warn him about? Who was after her? And why on earth had she kissed him, of all things!

Well…she obviously thought he was someone else. She had called him Ari. Maybe a ghost had possessed her, somehow, for some reason. But why would the ghost do that? They could be seen and were commonly accepted in the wizarding world.

It didn't make a lot of sense, but he had to convince her to do something. 'I can't lose Ginny,' he thought fiercely to himself. 'Not like I lost Sirius.'

Someone opening the back door to the kitchen suddenly interrupted his flood of thoughts. Harry caught his breath; he didn't really want to be found hiding under an apple tree in the shadows. The person stood quietly for a few moments, and then the door opened again and another person stepped out onto the veranda.

"Ahh, Hermione," Ron said. "Is Harry out here? Dinner's almost ready."

"No, he's not in the garden. He's probably around the side in the orchard."

"What would he be doing over there?" Ron asked.

"Looking for some quiet and alone time, I'd imagine." Hermione replied, sighing. There was a small stretch of silence, and then Hermione spoke again. "Have you noticed Harry acting...odd lately?"

Harry bit the inside of his mouth to keep from yelling,' I'm over here so you don't have to keep talking about me behind my back!' He didn't particularly appreciate his friends discussing him acting oddly behind his back.

"Odd? Not especially, no…but..." Ron trailed off. "But yeah, I mean, he's been acting a bit...I dunno...forced, I suppose. Its expected though, isn't it? He just lost Sirius."

Harry imagined Hermione nodding. "Yes, it is. I was reading a book on grieving and loss at the beginning of the holidays. It said that the first stage is denial-I think he's past that one by now-and the second stage is hiding emotions--"

Ron cut her off. "Hermione, cut it out. You're going on about Harry as if he's another case in your books."

There was a long silence in which Harry was thanking Ron for making her shut up; Hermione dissecting his emotions was making his temper flare a bit.

A moment later Harry was listening to see if they were still there. They hadn't said anything for a while. But as he kept listening, Harry was horrified to hear sniffling, and then what sounded like Hermione crying. "Ohh...bugger..." Harry whispered to himself. He could imagine Ron's expression of horror and bewilderment.

"Er...Hermione, look, I didn't mean it that way...bugger...its alright, there, there..."

"No, no…you were right...I'm just being stupid know-it-all Granger again...treating my best friend like an interesting book and discussing him like that...I'm horrible..." Harry heard her blow her nose loudly.

"You're really not horrible...I think you're the most amazing witch I've ever met..." Ron's voice had taken on a quality that Harry had never heard from him. He suddenly struck a horrible realization and a red tinge rose on his cheeks as he wished again that he wasn't under the apple tree.

"R-really? You really think so?" Hermione trembled as she sniffed loudly.

There were a few extremely long moments of silence, during which Harry was utterly horrified and glad that he couldn't see what his best friends were doing, and then--

"Ron? Ron? Ronald! Have you found Harry and Hermione yet? Dinner's getting cold!" Mrs. Weasley's voice shrilled from inside the Burrow.

"Er...yeah, yeah mum, we'll be in in a second!" Harry could tell Ron sounded extremely flustered and jumpy. "Er...after you Hermione. I actually think Harry's inside."

Harry heard the screen door shut and he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He waited a few seconds, and then stood and quickly walked around the side of the verandah before he witnessed any more private conversations.

He pulled open the door to the kitchen and nearly ran into Ron. He gave Harry an odd look. "How long were you outside there?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Not long," Harry said very quickly. "I was...err...in your room, and I just went out to see where you'd gotten off to." He didn't want Ron to know he'd overheard him and Hermione.

"Ahh...right. Well, dinner's ready. I think mum's set up a table outside." His air of suspicion had passed and Harry let out another breath of relief as he walked away.

Ginny bounded down the stairs as Harry was passing to go outside. She stopped on the bottom step and acknowledged him with a nod of her head. "Harry," She said curtly, and then continued walking past him.

"Ginny! Wait, would you?"

"Why? So you can just patronize me like the rest of them?" She indignantly huffed herself up to her full size, rather like a small fiery red blowfish, Harry thought to himself. "I won't subject myself to such babying."

Harry sighed exasperatedly. "I wish you wouldn't be angry with me. I was only worried for you." He paused before he went on, in a quieter voice this time. "Do you have any idea how much it scared me when...when you weren't Ginny anymore?"

"Oh, I don't know...you seemed to be enjoying it, if I recall correctly." She grinned mischievously, but Harry could see in her eyes that she was rather touched by his worry. To be on good terms with Ginny again made his heart swell, and Harry was almost positive he wasn't having a heart attack.

"Seriously Ginny," Trying to get Ginny to change her mind was extremely frustrating. She kept changing the subject. "Could you please just listen to me for a minute? You have to tell someone about what happened to you today. You could be in danger, or--"

"Harry, of course I'm in danger. We all are. We're at war." She looked up at him now, almost pleading with her eyes. Harry never realized how deep her chocolate eyes seemed to go. "And yes, I realize as well that I could be possessed by some malevolent spirit, but..."

At this point Ginny trailed off. How would she explain this to him? She couldn't really, she had no idea how to explain the unexplainable feeling she had. She just somehow knew that whatever had possessed her (she knew now that it must be a spirit of some sort) didn't mean harm to her, and that it didn't want to be found by anyone else. It was hiding.

"Harry," She said at last. "You're just going to have to trust me on this. I'm begging you. I need to keep this a secret. If it gets serious, then yes, I'll tell someone, but I don't think I'm in any immediate danger."

"But what if its too late, and you're hurt, or-"

"Harry," There was that pleading look again... "Harry, please just trust that I'll be alright."

Finally, he caved. "I...ok. But Ginny," Here he took a deep breath and gave her a weary smile. "Just be careful, ok?"

"Promise." With a smile of gratitude, Ginny led the way to the garden where Mrs. Weasley could be heard shrieking at Fred and George for letting Ron unknowingly eat a Cherry Chomper. Harry wondered fleetingly how long Ron's teeth would be a bright cherry red this time.

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Oh lord, its done. This chapter took surprisingly less time to write than all the other chapters...hm. Ahah, and I realized that I made a mistake with the plot in chapter five, but I'm not going to change it. So...I'm just going to take it and run. See where it lands me. :D At least the main idea for the plot isn't changing. Well, until next time

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	7. An Unsettling Calm

Needless to say, Ron regretted eating the Cherry Chomper for the rest of the summer, as Fred and George had not yet found a counter for their brother's very noticeable cherry-coloured problem.

"I just don't know why none of these counter-spells will work!" Mrs. Weasley cried, desperately leafing through her copy of _1000 Counter Spells for Pesky Problems_ (by Begonia Burgeon).

"Well, we sort of made this Cherry Chomper new and improved, to be more permanent," Fred quipped. "But don't worry; it'll probably wear off in a month or so. It wore off of George in only five weeks!"

Ron moaned.

The rest of the summer passed without note; except for when Hermione hexed Fred and George for testing a Swearing Sweet on her (the curses that she screeched at them weren't necessarily spells). With Fred and George keeping things lively, and Mrs. Weasley keepings them all busy with chores ("You have to earn your keep, you know! But Harry dear, Hermione, you're guests. Don't you lift a finger!") , it was hard to believe that a war was beginning to boil outside of their sheltered world.

Harry himself was grateful that everything seemed calm and safe at the Burrow, and that Ginny showed no signs of being possessed by a malicious spirit. He still watched her out of the corner of his eye, watching to see if her eye colour changed, or if she suddenly lost focus. However, Ginny was simply the same fiery Ginny that he had known since he was twelve.

It was a humid end of August evening, the day before they were to leave for Hogwarts, and Harry was sitting in a wooden lawn chair in the garden. The fire faeries were just waking up for the night, causing little fiery spots of light to dance around the trees. He sighed restlessly, wishing to do something that would occupy him, but at the same time, not wanting to be near people at all. Harry valued his solitude; he needed time to mull things over in his mind. His mind was never truly at peace.

Harry traced a crack in the faded wooden arm of the chair. He thought back to the surprise garden party the Weasley's had thrown for him to celebrate his 16th birthday. It had been an amazing party…All of the Weasley's (save Bill who was in Egypt and Percy who had still not reconciled with the family) had been there, and it was more than he could have asked for.

"Happy Birthday, Harry!" Hermione said, kissing him on the cheek, and pressed a neatly wrapped parcel into his hands.

"Yeah, finally hit puberty mate!" Ron said, clapping him heartily on the back and giving him a very cherry grin. He also handed Harry a lopsided wrapped shape of an object, which he accepted gratefully.

"Thanks, thanks a bunch Ron," Harry replied dryly. However, his wide smile was sincere. He had never had so many people doing something just for him.

Even Ginny wandered over to Harry later in the evening to shyly hand him a small gift.

"It isn't very much…but…well, it's a bit of a 'thank you for saving my life' and a 'happy sixteenth birthday' mixed together. So…hope you like it."

"Ginny, this is brilliant," Harry exclaimed as he unwrapped the tiny parcel to reveal an intricately braided rope bracelet with a small lightning bolt charm on it, and a chocolate frog.

"Its funny how that lightning bolt is sort of important to both of us now, don't you think?" Ginny mentioned quietly as Harry inspected the twisting designs on the braided bracelet.

"Yeah, it is," Harry replied, looking back up at Ginny. "Thank you for the gift, especially for the frog. I know how unwilling you are to part with your chocolate." He laughed. "But this bracelet is wonderful, Gin…"

"Didn't really take that much," she said, turning away. "Just requires a bit of practice to get the hang of it."

"Well thank you anyway," Harry said, and he hugged her. Ginny was slightly surprised to find that her cheeks went slightly rosy at this show of affection, but she tried not to let on.

"You're welcome," she said very shortly, and with a smile, turned away and made a quick exit.

Harry now inspected the bracelet he had tied around his left wrist once again. It was a very nice bracelet. Harry wasn't the jewelry wearing sort, but he felt like he wouldn't take this particular piece off any time soon.

As he sat in the wooden chair watching the sun slowly fade into the horizon, the thought that Sirius being at his birthday would have made it perfect flitted through his mind. He knew that that would be impossible though.

He still woke up with nightmares, wondering if Sirius was still on the other side of the veil.

A sudden flash of coppery red hair and a splash of freckles filled his mind. Ginny in a yellow sun dress, Ginny playing quidditch, Ginny de-gnoming the garden, all of these images filled his mind. Harry really wasn't sure what he felt toward her, or if she felt anything for him…but he really didn't want to think about it. His mind was too busy reeling with all sorts of other things.

Like that prophecy. It was so much information to wrap his mind around. How had Dumbledore kept something as important as that prophecy a secret from him for as long as he had? What would his life be like if Voldemort had attacked Neville's family instead of his own?

Questions like these mounted in his mind, but it was impossible to fully understand it all. He couldn't possibly understand it all.

"_Neither can live while the other survives…_" Harry whispered the prophecy to himself under his breath. The idea scared him. Sooner or later, he would have to kill him. Or be killed.

Kill or be killed.

"Oh Harry, come quick!"

Harry looked up to see Hermione and Ron laughing and running around the side of the house, from the orchard. "Fred and George, they're setting off another batch of those fireworks they set off at the school last year! Come watch with us!"

Letting a smile wrap itself across his face, Harry pulled himself up from the wooden lawn chair and followed them to the orchard.

**xxxxxxx**

Ginny watched as another pinwheel exploded into a spray of sparks outside her bay window. It was quite a pretty sight to see. After a couple minutes of watching, however, she returned herself to the task at hand.

Making everything fit into her trunk.

The robes and second hand books and the cauldron and other random articles of clothing and objects simply would not allow the lid to shut properly, and after several minutes of struggling to close it the muggle way, Ginny simply grabbed her wand and charmed it shut. "There," she said resolutely, wiping the sweat from her brow.

Collapsing backwards onto her bed, Ginny allowed her mind to wander. The idea that she was hosting a wandering spirit in her body hadn't left her mind for a moment in the last month and a half. She wondered when Mildred LeGray (because she was somehow positive now that it was her who was within her) would make her next appearance.

Ginny had to figure out what she wanted very soon. She was leaving for Hogwarts in the morning, and this would become a difficult problem to deal with once back at school…

Perhaps she and Harry had just imagined the entire thing though. Mildred hadn't bothered her since the…the kiss. Maybe it had been in their heads?

Sitting up suddenly on her bed, Ginny closed her eyes and concentrated. If she won't come out on her own, I'll just have to make her, she thought to herself.

_Mildred…Mildred LeGray…You'd better come out now, or else…_

Ginny thought of the dream she'd had after she'd nearly drowned. The one with Ari, and flying on the broomstick at Hogwarts. She thought of the smell of it, the feel of the wind whipping her hair…

Ginny fell backwards onto her bed, suddenly stripped of her energy. An explosion of firework boomed in her right ear somewhere outside her window, but it was far, far away and muted.

The noises and laughing voices faded away.

And then the explosions, much different from the crack of fireworks, engulfed her, and surrounded her.

There was a fear that suddenly gripped her. A fear of being chased. She could hear the shouting voices, and the explosions were so very close.

She was being hunted.

* * *

Over two years since it began, I've decided to pick this up again. I actually had chapter 7 written, just not posted…and then the Great Crash of 2005 happened, and I lost everything on my hard drive --; yeah, sucks, I know. But I really didn't like how slow chapter 7 was going anyway, so I'm just going to take this in a completely different direction. Too bad, chapter 7 was all suspenseful-y and everything! 

And oh dear, this chapter took a while to write…I need to study for my history test now….XD. By the way, I forgot to mention it, but HP HBP was released since I posted Chapter 6. Yeah. I can't really incorporate Horcruxes and dead Dumbledores now, can I? I suppose this is an AU, pre year 6 fic then. . Sounds like fun.

Errr also excuse me if my OotP facts are off…I haven't read that book through in so long…must do that too…

Review pleeeeaaase :3


	8. Vision of Destruction

An explosion of red sparks and fire went off above Mildred's head. She flinched, and drew further behind the tall stone column she was hiding behind. Shutting her panicked gray eyes tightly, she gathered her wits about her and got read to run for it…if she could just get to The Apothecary, then she could get to the port key that she left in there…

She drew her breath in sharply as another explosion was heard, followed by screams. People were getting hurt, and it was all her fault…she had to stop it, somehow…but they were looking for _her_. And she couldn't just give herself up. She had to warn them first…

The sudden, vivid image of the Ministry of Magic engulfed with explosion and flames had filled her mind. She'd just been hit with that vision, and knew it would happen soon. She had to warn them, before there was utter catastrophe.

But there was already utter catastrophe all around her. Diagon Alley was being reduced to simple rubble and–

Mildred drew in her breath and held it, not daring to move. Six wizards in pure white robes, their faces concealed, ran past her, flicking their wands at the Apothecary across the cobblestone walk as they passed.

In an instant, there was earsplitting roar and the Apothecary was consumed with flames. "Damn!" Mildred cursed. There would be no easy way out of this now. They were cutting off all of her exits. Her options were running out quickly.

The piercing scream of a small girl cut through the noise of explosions and raging infernos. It came from just around the corner of Mildred, the same direction the six white robed men had run. "Oh no…" Mildred gripped her wand and took off through the smoke screen.

The scene that befell Mildred when she broke through the suffocating plumes was one that would haunt her, she knew, forever.

"You see her, you dirty little hybrid? That's your disgusting mudblood of a mother. Not going to protect you now, is she?" The six men in white robes encircled the small girl, cowering beside the dead corpse of her mother, who wore muggle clothing. Her father, wearing bloodied blue robes, lay dead and smoldering four metres away.

"You…YOU GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Mildred screamed "Stupefy!" and two men fell. The other four tried to surround her, and stun her, but failed as she dodged out of the way. She petrified another of the men, but was then hit from behind with a spell she did not recognize; it caused her shoulder, where she was hit, to burn and smoke. She screamed in pain and scratched at her shoulder to stop the burning.

She realized the last three men were advancing upon her, so with all of her will power, she bit her tongue to stop the pain and raised her wand to attack once again. She opened her mouth to yell a curse, but was cut off by a strong voice behind her.

"STUPEFY!"

Falling to her knees, she watched as two men fell to the ground, stunned. The last man standing shielded the curse and sent up red sparks as some sort of signal. Mildred could see the maniacal grin beneath the hood. "Expelliarmus!" she yelled with more seething hatred than she'd ever experienced toward a single being. He flew backward, his head and body connecting with the brick with a dull thud.

Suddenly aware of the burning pain still in her shoulder, Mildred winced and cried out in pain. Someone ran to her side and held her up as she collapsed over. Looking up, she saw a very worried, bespectacled face and a mass of messy dark hair. It was Ari.

"Oh Good Lord, Millie…" He brushed a lock of singed auburn hair from her face. "What happened?"

"There's not much time to explain now," she said to him weakly. She seemed to be getting weaker. Perhaps this spell was some sort of spreading poison? She didn't have time to speculate, she had to explain what was going to happen, and she had to get that girl to safety.

"Ari, I need you to listen closely. These people, the Pureblood Alliance, they're still after me. They're still trying to find out how I knew where they were attacking the first time."

"I knew it…that's why I followed you out here. I had a bad feeling about today. But we need to get you out of here right now—"

"Ari, you must listen to me…I had another vision just now, and they're…they're going after the ministry this time. They're looking for absolute…absolute destruction," Mildred said quietly, but urgently. The burning sensation was spreading outward from her shoulder. She didn't know how long she'd last like this.

"Okay, we'll warn them. But we must get you away from here, Millie," Ari looked up and around for the quickest escape route, but it was difficult to see anything through the thick smoke that seemed to loom around them.

"Ari," Mildred grabbed him by the collar. "Ari, we must make sure the girl gets to a safe place. Make sure she's safe, please…" Mildred winced and fell backward. It hurt to move her body at all. It was like the burning was turning into a prickling knife that kept stabbing her repeatedly.

"Girl…?" Ari looked up and around, and for the first time noticed the quivering mass of green cloak, hiding behind a barrel of newt eyes. He also noticed the corpses. "Oh God…those are her parents."

He furrowed his brow, a grim expression on his face. Then he called out to her. "Little girl, it's alright now. You're going to be safe. Come here, we'll take you somewhere safe."

It was at this moment that Mildred gasped aloud, as the pain peaked, and for a moment, she thought her heart had stopped beating. "Ari…" she gasped.

"Millie!"

"Excrucio mortis!"

So many things happened at once that Mildred was barely aware of what had happened until another group of men in pure white robes pulled Ari's unmoving body from on top of her. She stared into his empty eyes and realized what must have happened, but it didn't register in her mind.

It was when the men began to levitate her paralyzed body away, and she heard, "Kill that disgusting hybrid," that she began to scream until her throat felt like it was tearing itself apart.

"GINNY! WAKE UP!"

Ginny bolted up in her bed, her eyes wide and darting around wildly. Hermione had her gripped by the shoulders, shaking her.

"Ginny! Stop it! Ginny, look at me, look at me!" Hermione screamed at her. She had been getting dressed for the morning and packing some items last minute when Ginny had started moaning in her sleep, and then screaming loudly.

Ginny looked up at Hermione, tears beginning to spill over. Her throat was raw; she tried to speak, but sound wouldn't come out anymore. "I…he…the little girl…" was all she managed to whisper.

"Ginny…oh Ginny, it was just a dream," Hermione chided, as she pulled her into a hug. "Shh, don't worry, it's all better now."

Ginny couldn't explain it to her. She was too over come with everything to speak, so she simply sat there sobbing into Hermione's shoulder.

"Ginny, are you okay?" A bewildered Harry stood at her bedroom door, looking back and forth between the two girls. "We…we heard you scream…"

"It was just a bad dream, nothing at all," Hermione waved it away. "She was just having a bit of a bad dream."

Ginny lifted her head from Hermione's should and stared at Harry. It was…but it wasn't…she stood very shakily and walked over to Harry, looking into his eyes the entire way just to make sure they never had the empty look that she saw in Ari's eyes.

Harry didn't know what she had dreamed of, but whatever it had been had obviously shaken her up quite a bit. He didn't quite understand, however, why Ginny was staring so intently at him, and why utterly bewildered when she gripped him into a fierce hug. She was shuddering.

Maybe it had something to do with that…the spirit…

"Gin...it wasn't…" He pulled her away from him and stared her in her watery eyes. "Gin. What was it?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but was then suddenly aware that Hermione was still sitting on her bed, watching the exchange between her and Harry raptly, and that at least two of her brothers were currently pounding their way up the rickety Burrow stairs.

"It was a bad dream, s'all," Ginny said, quickly thinking up a lie. "I suppose I just have a bit of anxiety leaving home this year. Thanks for asking, Harry." Ginny turned away and, wiping her face, walked to her bed and began to make it.

She looked back at Harry standing in the door way. He gave her a pointed look that she knew meant _we'll be discussing this in private later_. "I'm glad I could help," was all he said before walking away.

A moment later Ron ran up the stairs and stopped by the door. "You're alright now, aren't you Gin? You were making an awful lot of noise…sounded like the house was coming down around your ears…"

"Yes, Ronald, I'm perfectly fine!" And she slammed her door in his face.

"Do you want to talk about it, Ginny?" Hermione said quietly from her bed. Ginny didn't look at her. She didn't want her to see her face, because she knew Hermione would see right through her.

"No, I'd much rather not talk about it just now. We should get a move on; mum wants us ready to go in an hour."

"Whatever you say."

**

* * *

**

**Auugh…I have school tomorrow and you don't want to know what time it is…**

Boy, I'm on a writer's rush, two chapters in one week…used to take me a year to dish out this much…

I've actually got the plot laid out in my head D

Omgosh I'm so excited about this now. I might ACTUALLY finish this one!

Woooo review review review: 3


	9. Two Snitches and a Broomstick

Ginny leaned her head against the window and watched the remote country scene rush by. The window began to fog up from the dreary drizzling outside the Hogwart's Express. Frustrated, she swiped her hand across the film on the window, leaving a streak of blurriness in its wake.

So Ari had been killed. He had been murdered while trying to save Mildred, who had been trying to save a little girl.

This was all because of those men…those pureblooded maniacs. What had she called them? The Pureblood Alliance. They had worn pure white robes, and their faces had been covered by the shadows. Their strange reminiscence to Death Eaters seemed uncanny to Ginny.

But Ari had been killed. This knowledge and seeing him dead, it overwhelmed her with a sense of helplessness and torture. It made her want to start screaming all over again. Ginny knew that even if Ari had survived the attack, he'd be dead a hundred years later anyway, but the knowledge of how he'd been killed…knowing that hurt her. A dull ache was growing in her chest.

Harry looked so much like Ari.

He sat on the opposite side of the compartment, scanning through Hermione's issue of the _Daily Prophet_. He was looking for signs of Voldemort's return, no doubt. There had been several mysterious deaths reported over the summer (which weren't so mysterious to Harry and the Weasleys, who knew who was behind it all), but other than that, nothing.

Hermione and Ron sat nestled together on Ginny's side of the compartment. They hadn't mentioned anything official, but Harry thought it was about time they admitted it. Ginny thought anything to do with her brother and a girl was disgusting.

"Oh! Ron, we have to patrol the corridor's now," Hermione said after noticing the time on her watch.

"Righto," Ron said, standing and stretching. "We'll see you two in a bit then?" And with a nod of his head to Harry and Ginny, the two Gryffindor prefects were gone.

A profound silence slowly overtook the compartment with Ron and Hermione's departure. Ginny could tell Harry wanted to say something, but he was biting his tongue about it. This bothered Ginny a bit, for some reason.

"You know, if you've got something to say—"

"Ginny, what did you dream about?"

Ginny stopped. She didn't know how she would explain it to him. She didn't know if she even _wanted_ to explain it to him. He was being horribly snoopy.

"Perhaps you're delving into something that is none of your business—"

"You _are_ my business!"

"Oh REALLY? Since when am I your business? Unless I am very much mistaken," Ginny stood, gathering her robes and chocolate frogs together. "It's _me_ who owes the life debt to _you_. Don't try to save people who don't need saving, Harry."

And with that, she left, slamming the compartment door behind her.

Harry was utterly baffled as to what had just occurred.

He was also utterly frustrated at how unbelievably stubborn Ginny could be sometimes.

"Argh!" Harry kicked the seat and sat down, running his fingers through his already disheveled hair. He couldn't understand why she was such an explosive person. He just wanted to help her, and to keep her safe.

**xxxxxxx**

Ginny stalked up the corridor, her frogs and her robes clutched to her chest. She was breathing heavily, like she had just run for a very long time. Her anger was beginning to cool off.

The nerve of him! Really!

Ginny leaned against a one of the glass doors and closed her eyes, composing herself. She didn't really know why she had gotten so angry at Harry…she was just on edge, she supposed.

What am I doing to myself? Ginny thought to herself suddenly. She suddenly wasn't sure if she wanted to know what Mildred LeGray wanted. She didn't want to find out what had happened to her, not in the way that she had been experiencing the rest of her life—

Ginny suddenly fell backwards with a squeak as someone opened the compartment door and jumped backward. Groaning, Ginny looked up to find that her bad day had just gotten worse.

Standing above her was Draco Malfoy.

He looked surprised at first, but quickly replaced it with a smirk. "Look what the nifflers dragged in. It's a muggle-loving Weasley. Where's the rest of your pack?"

"Step off, Malfoy," Ginny seethed, picking herself up from the floor gingerly. Sitting around the compartment were the rest of the sixth year Slytherin boys, who were snickering amongst themselves. She really wasn't in the mood for this, on top of it all. She bent to pick up her robes, which had fallen to the floor, but Malfoy grabbed them first.

Taking a deep breath, and trying to suppress another angry raging outburst, she simply and quietly said, "Malfoy, my robes, if you don't mind."

"God, look at the wear of these rags! It looks even worse than the usual second hand filth you usually have," Malfoy said, and the compartment burst into laughter.

"Har har, you're a real stand up comedian. Robes, Malfoy."

"And what if I don't? Ooh, will you go running to your big prefect brother Ronny—"

"Malfoy, I SWEAR that you are going to regret not giving me my robes in about fifteen seconds."

He stopped and then gave her an appraising look. Ginny watched as his eyes traveled up and down her body; it was the most defiling feeling she had ever experienced.

"Malfoy," Ginny said dangerously. "I'm sure your memory remembers last year very clearly. And I'm sure you remember a certain bat-bogey hex I cast on you. I'm also sure you remember running away from me and screaming for your mummy. Please don't make the same mistake twice."

The Slytherin boys looked to Malfoy for his reaction. He narrowed his eyes at Ginny, and then opened his mouth to say something else.

Before he even got the first word out, Ginny, who had had enough for one day, whipped out her wand and cried "Evanesco!"

"Beautiful, Malfoy. Quaffles and a broomstick. Did your mother pick those out for you?" Ginny said, smiling rather maliciously. "Although, I think it'd be more to scale if you had snitches on your underwear, instead. I do believe quaffles are being a bit generous." She grabbed her robes from Malfoy, who was spluttering incoherently, and bolted from the compartment, which was breaking into laughter.

"Shut UP and get me some robes, would you!" She heard as she walked away down the train, feeling slightly gratified.

Who was she kidding? She was _extremely_ gratified!

**xxxxxxx**

Harry, who had fallen asleep after worrying about Ginny for a bit. was jolted out his sleep as the compartment door opened. "Ginny?" he mumbled, fumbling for his glasses.

"No, it's us, Harry," Hermione said, reaching his glasses for him and handing them to him. "Where did she go?"

Ron and Hermione sat down opposite Harry. Harry rubbed his face with his hands and took his time putting his glasses on, sighing loudly. "I've no idea. She's somewhere on the train, but she stormed off a while ago."

"What'd you do this time?" Ron asked, sighing as well.

"Who said I did anything? She's been on edge all day! I just asked her," Harry grabbed a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean (it was orange with suspicious green spots) and popped it into his mouth. "What she had dreamed about last night." He winced as the taste of moldy oranges reached his taste buds. He spit it out and said, "I don't see why she had to bite my face off for being concerned."

Ron shook his head. "Harry, you should know by now that you don't ask girls personal questions like that. If you ask, you're being snoopy, and if you don't you're a heartless bastard. It's a lose-lose situation." Ron nodded knowingly. "You'd better get used to it. It's a girl thing."

"Yeah, I suppose you're—Since when have you become an expert on _girls_, of all things?"

Ron's ears turned a deep shade of red, and Hermione looked as if she were having a extremely hard time covering the smirk that threatened to break out on her face.

"Just common sense, you know…"

"Oh, Harry, look what time it is. We should be there really soon. You'd better get changed into your robes," Hermione said, standing. "In the mean time, I'd better go look around for Ginny. I'll see you two later." And Hermione left the compartment.

"So when did you finally tell her?" Harry said, rounding on Ron.

Ron's ears, which had just nearly returned to their normal pale shade grew dangerously close to turning red again. "What d'you mean?" he spluttered.

Harry chuckled. "Ron, I'm not stupid. Nor am I blind. When did you finally tell Hermione that you like her, and when did you finally find out that she likes you too?"

Ron looked as if he was going to try to deny it a bit more, but then thought better of it. "At the beginning of the summer. We…didn't really want to jump into things, or tell anyone, really, because we didn't want it to be…weird…"

Harry thumped Ron on the back. "It's not weird. That's brilliant, mate. I knew you could do it." Harry grinned at Ron and pulled his robes over his muggle clothing.

"Wait…wait a moment," Ron said, baffled by something. "She didn't say anything to…to you, did she?"

"No. Why?"

"Well how did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That we liked each other, dolt!"

Harry scoffed. "Well it's been plain as daylight with you since first year. And Hermione has been trying to get your attention since…third or fourth year, I'm thinking."

"What! No she hasn't—"

"Believe me," Harry said, attempting to flatten his hair in the reflection of the darkened window. "She has. Ask her."

"No way. You can't ask her something like that…it's too…too…"

"You, my friend," Harry said, giving up on his hair. "Just don't want to find out how thick headed you've been for the last five years. Don't worry, happens to the best of us."

"Yeah…yeah, guess so…" Ron said, sitting down heavily.

The compartment door slid open then, revealing Hermione and Ginny, with Luna Lovegood trailing behind them. Upon spotting Ron, Luna passed Hermione and Ginny and immediately took a seat beside him.

"Good evening, Ronald Weasley. We're almost at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ron said uneasily, edging farther away on the seat. As Ron tried his best to lean away from Luna Lovegood, her protruding orb-like eyes seemed to get bigger, and closer to him. "Well…I'd best patrol the corridors one last time before we get there."

"But Ron, its Malfoy's turn to patrol. He's probably out there right now," Hermione cut in.

Ron, standing in the middle of the compartment, seemed to be having an internal dilemma. Finally coming to what must have been a very difficult decision, Ron sat back down, mumbling, "Oh yes, forgot about him…"

Ginny, who had sat down beside Hermione, was nibbling on a chocolate frog when she smugly said, "Malfoy has quaffles on his boxers."

Everyone stopped and stared at Ginny.

"I imagined him more of a black silk boxer sort of person…"

Ron rounded on Luna. "You actually imagine _Malfoy_ in his underwear?" He shuddered to express his absolute disgust with the thought.

"He is rather good-looking."

Ron shuddered again.

Hermione had a look of mirth on her face. "How in the world did you find out what sort of underwear Malfoy wears?"

Ginny laughed shortly. "He got in my way, that's what. And I made his robes vanish. You don't make fun of me and get away with it."

"Oh but Ginny," Hermione said, reproachfully. "He's a prefect…you shouldn't have done that, he'll take points away from Gryffindor before we even get to the school…"

"It was him that started it. Let him take the points. Hermione, we have all year long. And anyway, what does it matter in the long run?" Ginny shrugged her shoulders and took a another bite of the poor chocolate frog.

For once, Hermione simply looked troubled, but didn't say anything.

As all this happened, Harry was sitting in the corner of the compartment trying to figure out how to talk to Ginny. He didn't want to confront her about it with Ron, Hermione and Luna around, because he knew she wouldn't like that. Perhaps he'd just wait until they got off the train, or at the feast.

He didn't have time to contemplate this more, as it was at that precise moment that that train began to slow down.

"Looks like we're here," Harry said, looking up to Ginny, making eye contact.

She looked away, pretending not to see him looking . Ginny was feeling slightly guilty, but was still a bit miffed. Either way, she didn't want to talk to him very much at the moment, because she knew she'd end up telling him about…about…that dream…

When they stepped off the train, it was drizzling, and gloomy. Once everyone had gotten their trunks off of the train, Luna had disappeared again, and Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny hurried into a carriage (led by the thestrals that Harry knew neither Ron, Ginny nor Hermione could see) and out of the rain.

Harry looked through the drizzling rain out the window and spotted Hogwarts looming into view. He smiled faintly to himself.

"Welcome home," he whispered to himself.

* * *

Okay, dudes…guess what. This is so _not cool._ How many chapters have I written this week alone, come on, guess. Yes, three.

HOWEVER.

How many reviews have I gotten?

Zilch. Save one very nice comment that told me very bluntly to UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!

And I did. Thank you, Stylin'Fire, for making me happy and listening to my subliminal messaging that keeps telling you all to REVIEW and make me feel better about my complete waste of time.

Aww man, don't worry, I'm not mad. I just want to know that I'm not talking to myself.…

I'm just talking to myself, aren't I? -.-

Woooo : DD! Yeah for talking to myself!

**reviewreviewreview**


	10. Illusen's Mirror

The first day back at Hogwarts was a flurry of activity, so Ginny had little time to contemplate her predicament of being stricken by visions of massacres, let alone figure out the situation with Harry.

Ginny helped herself to some bacon and toast as prefects passed out the timetables. With a sympathetic look, Hermione handed Ginny's timetable to her. "Have fun with that," she said, nodded at the sheet of parchment. She grimaced as she glanced down to see what she had first.

'_Ugh…'_Ginny thought to herself. She had double potions in the morning, and ancient runes and defense against the dark arts in the afternoon. At least she had ancient runes. It was the one redeeming subject of the day, as she excelled rather well at it. She had that to look forward to.

She suddenly looked up to the professors' table, scanning it for an unfamiliar face. She had just realized that a new defense against the dark arts teacher had not been introduced last night during the start of year feast. How odd. There didn't appear to be anyone unfamiliar, and Dumbledore hadn't mentioned anything. McGonagall caught Ginny's eye and gave her a curt nod of acknowledgement; Ginny smiled in return. Whoever was teaching the subject, she would find out by the end of the day.

Despite being the first day back, Snape threw the class right into difficult work, spending the first half of class taking notes, and the second half preparing a difficult potion for marks.

"I assure you," he had droned quietly, but severely from the front of the classroom. "I assure you that nothing will come easily this year. Those of you who somehow managed to barely pass my class these past four years will not receive an OWL at the end of this year, unless you decide to suddenly show a shred of talent for potions." He smirked then. "But if you haven't shown an aptitude for it yet, I doubt you should even consider continuing in my class next year an option."

Ginny stirred the bubbling vat of yellow-green substance, a growth potion (which was supposed to be orange), as Snape walked by. He peered into the bubbling cauldron, sniffed loudly and then walked away. Ginny turned to her partner, Miranda Green, who was in Hufflepuff. "I suppose it's done, then." She nodded her rounded, friendly face in reply, filled a flask with their growth potion, and then shoved a cork in it.

"Your homework is to write one foot of parchment on the effects, advantages, and disadvantages of using a growth potion. Due Wednesday," Snape drawled as the students filed out of the classroom door. Ginny dropped the flask of growth potion on the desk before walking out the door. She sighed. This would be a long year; she'd no doubt about it. At least it was lunch time.

Dragging herself into the Great Hall, Ginny followed the delicious wafting aromas to the Gryffindor table, where she served herself a generous helping of shepherd's pie. Much too busy curing her empty stomach, she didn't quite notice until he said, "Nice to see you too, Gin" that Harry had taken a seat beside her.

She stopped chewing and turned to him, mouth still slightly full. "Tha's a bi' rish—" She swallowed here. "—coming from you, Harry."

Harry was about to retort when he stopped himself, frustrated. This was not how he had envisioned this conversation going. He had more imagined himself saying something rather witty, and clever, and her laughing off whatever she was cross with him about, and them being all jolly and happy and forgiving him for what he had done, whatever it was.

This was definitely not going how he had envisioned.

"Look, Ginny. Would you just listen? Please?"

She stopped eating, but didn't turn toward him.

"I don't know why you're so angry at me. Well, yes I do, I realize that you've made that entire…incident…a taboo subject. But please believe me when I say that I'm just worried. I only mean well."

Ginny turned to him, and for a slice of a second her guard was down, and Harry could see that there was something truly wrong, that something had happened, but then the walls were back up, and she was once again calm and collected Ginny. The Ginny that didn't need protecting.

"I'm sorry I got so angry, Harry." She offered an apologetic smile. "But just…trust me. I'm perfectly fine, see? Not a scratch on me!" Finishing up her shepherd's pie, she stood. "Well, I'm going to start out for arithmancy; I'll see you later, Harry."

She gathered her bag, but then stopped and looked at Harry. "Thank you for caring." And then she was gone.

She was still hiding something, something she wouldn't tell anyone. But at least things were okay between them now.

Sighing, Harry dished himself some lunch. "What a girl," he muttered to himself.

**xxxxx**

"Bother, bother, bother," Ginny muttered to herself as she made her way through the castle to her ancient runes class on the fourth floor. She didn't know why, but the conversation that she had just had with Harry had bothered her a lot.

Truthfully (but she was far too proud to admit it), Ginny felt like an utter arse for treating Harry like she was.

But she definitely couldn't go to Dumbledore about this. Mildred LeGray was trying to tell her something, she just didn't know what yet. Ginny was sure that through the visions and scraps of memories that she was experiencing, she would be able to find out what Mildred was saying.

And if she told Harry what had been happening, he would most definitely force her to Dumbledore's office.

No, she would handle this on her own just fine.

Ginny took a seat in the row second from the back of the class. She pulled her text book and a roll of parchment out, and waited for class to start. She was drawing mindlessly on the corner of her parchment when she heard a confident voice laced with charm from behind her head.

"That's a _lovely_ drawing, Ginny."

She sighed. "Afternoon, Murdoch."

Murdoch McTallon, a Ravenclaw, was the boy in Ginny's year that the girly-girls (which Ginny certainly was not) seemed to swoon for. He had near celebrity status among the fifth years, and legends attached to his name. Ginny really couldn't understand why he was so popular, as she thought he was very disgustingly full of himself. Like a younger version of Lockhart, the defense against the dark arts professor from her first year, who was now the unfortunate victim of a backfired memory charm.

Needless to say, Ginny could not stand this Murdoch character.

Unfortunately, Ginny was on Murdoch's list of "Girls I Must Make Fall In Love With Me By Seventh Year".

For that, she hated him.

"Gin, darling, your hair looks radiant this morning. Have you done something different?" He ran a hand through his own straight, soft, bleach blond locks.

"No. You know, if you want tips to make your hair shinier, or something, I'm sure Tiffany Mudget will let you borrow her issue of _Teen Witch Weekly_. I am told there's an entire section devoted to hair care."

He laughed silkily. "Gin, love, you always put a smile on my face. That's what I love about you. You've got this wonderful, sarcastic wit…"

"And you've got this wonderfully dense brain that doesn't take no for an answer…" she muttered to herself as she continued to draw circles on the corner of her parchment.

"So why don't we meet for supper in the Great Hall? It's beautiful weather outside, I could grab us something, and we could have a picnic by the lake—"

"Oh darn, you know, I have a potions test to study for tomorrow. I'd better cram for that, you know how Snape is."

"But it's only the first day of classes—"

At this moment, Ginny was relieved to see Professor Vector walk into the classroom. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief. At least Murdoch hadn't cornered her for long. Sometimes he was impossible to get rid of. No matter how many insults Ginny hurled at his head, he kept asking her on dates. But she had to hand it to him, he had determination.

The rest of class passed quickly (even with Murdoch sitting behind her) and Ginny left the room quickly, before Murdoch could offer to walk her to her defense against the dark arts class.

As Ginny pressed her way through the crowds traveling in the hall, she realized that she would finally find out who the defense against dark arts professor was. She quickened her pace to get there faster, and noticed, as she did so, that the other students in her class seemed to be in a hurry to get to class as well.

Miranda Green caught up to Ginny. Her blonde curls seemed to bob excitedly along with her. "Have you seen the new defense professor yet?"

"No," Ginny replied, craning her neck to see if she could spot anyone that looked unfamiliar amongst the crows of students. "Have you seen the new professor?"

"No, I haven't, but I heard a rumour that the new professor is some sort of former rock star, or something…"

Ginny scoffed. "Oh come on. I highly doubt that our new defense professor is, or was a rock star."

"I dunno…don't assume anything, you know?" She leaned her head confidentially closer to Ginny's as they walked, and she lowered her airy voice slightly. "I've also heard that the new professor's a spy, working undercover for some sort of resistance against You-Know-Who, and he's secretly here to protect Harry Potter, you know?"

Ginny stopped, and then Miranda stopped beside her. "You're not serious?"

Miranda shrugged. "It's just what I've heard from the other classes who've had defense already. I'm just sending the message along."

"Wait, do Hufflepuffs even have defense right now?"

"Nah, Gryffindors are with Slytherins right now. I'm just here to see if I can see the new professor…I don't have defense until tomorrow." She gave a cheeky grin, and then turned to walk up a staircase. "See you later, Ginny!"

Ginny watched as Miranda Green bounced away down the hall, and then she continued to steadily make her way through the crowds of students heading toward their respective classes.

Ginny herself walked into her defense against the dark arts class, and then sat down near the back. The other Gryffindor and Slytherin students around her (each on their own sides of the classroom) sat in small groups gossiping quietly, and an excited buzz flew through the classroom.

They all wanted to know who the new professor was, and if the rumours matched up. Ginny really couldn't see Dumbledore bringing in a secret service, former rock star of a professor just for Harry's protection. But then again, like Miranda had said…don't assume anything.

Just then, the class room doors burst open, and a very large box entered, followed by a person whom Ginny could not see, save the bottom of their robes from under the box. Setting the box heavily on the ground, the new defense against the dark arts teacher was revealed. Silently, half the class (decidedly, the female half) swooned, and Ginny raised her eyebrows in approval. Miranda was right; he _did_ look like a former rock star. With longer, dark chestnut hair and deep-set, translucent blue eyes, Ginny wondered what he was doing teaching at Hogwarts when he should probably be on the cover of _Teen Witch Weekly. _

"Morning, class. I am Professor Leech, and I'll be your defense teacher for this year." This introduction was met with blank stares, and slightly glazed expressions (again, from the female half of the population). "I see some things don't changed round here," he said with a boyish grin.

A Slytherin boy, Walter Parish, raised a boney arm, and asked with an appraising look down his long pointy nose, "Are you sure you're old enough to be a professor?" This was met with sniggers from most of the Slytherins.

"I assure you," he replied, staring down the poor Slytherin boy with his strange, pale blue eyes. "I assure you that if Professor Dumbledore thinks I'm fit to teach, I am." He walked back to the front of the class room, and then stood before the box. "Now, let's get down to the fun stuff. I thought I'd make the first lesson something fascinating."

Everyone shifted forward slightly on their seats, anticipating what was in the box. Perhaps it was a dark creature in a tank, of some sort?

Professor Leech pulled a long maple wand from his midnight blue robes. He then tapped the side of the box, making it fall open onto the ground, and revealed an old, ornate looking mirror, a little shorter than the professor, who was quite tall. Ginny wondered briefly if this was that Mirror of Erised that Harry and Ron had mentioned in passing once or twice.

"Get out your text books, and look up chapter four. There should be a section called the Magical Properties of Enchanted Mirrors." There was a rustling of parchment and quills and text books, and Professor Leech continued speaking. "Yes, a particularly interesting subject, mirrors…One philosopher says that it reflects the very soul of a being, and that is precisely why vampires, for example, cannot be seen in them; because they do not possess a soul." The class sat silently with their parchment and text books on their desks, raptly listening to this Professor Leech speak. He must be part veela, like Fleur, Ginny concluded.

"Now, this mirror here," he acknowledged the large mirror behind him with a wave of his hand. "This mirror here is not just an ordinary talking mirror. No, this here is Illusen's Mirror. This mirror is infamous for entrapping the souls of witches and wizards for the last millennia." Most of the class sat a little bit farther back in their seats upon hearing this, and Professor Leech laughed heartily. "Don't tell me you're afraid of being trapped in a mirror for an eternity."

Stuart Weston, one of the Gryffindor boys that Ginny didn't know particularly well, raised his hand tentatively. "We don't get…sucked in if we look into it, do we?"

"Don't worry…" Professor Leech checked a sheet, and then looked back up to Stuart. "…Mr. Weston. The only way to be sucked into Illusen's mirror, as you say, is if the incantation is read while the poor soul is gazing into the mirror. If the gaze between victim and mirror is broken, no sucking occurs, which is why there haven't been many victims over the course of the years." The professor walked around to face the mirror, and let his right hand rest on the glass. "They say all of Illusen's victims are still trapped in that alternate dimension. There is no way out."

Ginny looked at the mirror, thoughtfully. "Professor, are you completely sure there's no way for a soul to escape the mirror?"

"Well, no one can know for sure, but even if it was managed…that spirit would be breaking some deep ancient magic there. That witch or wizard would have to be awfully powerful."

"Right…"

The mirror, for some reason, caused a sinking feeling in Ginny's stomach. For some reason…

"Professor?"

Leech consulted the sheet once again before replying. "Yes Miss Weasley?"

"Do they know the names of any of the victims?"

"Why do you ask?" He raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"Curiosity's sake." Ginny raised her own eyebrows, expectantly.

"Well…" He picked up a large tome from his desk, and consulted the middle section of the book. "It says here that before the Ministry confiscated it, Illusen's mirror was in possession of a pureblood extremist terrorist group during the last century."

Ginny's stomach dropped, if felt like, through the floor. "And was their last victim Mildred LeGray?'

"In fact," Professor Leech looked up in surprise. "That is what the rumor is. But no one is sure. You see, because the mirror only possesses the soul, the body is left behind, lifeless. Mildred LeGray could have been killed by a number of different spells, but many skeptics think it was dear Illusen here that did her in."

Ginny's mouth felt dry. How was it that Mildred had escaped the inescapable? Professor Leech continued the lesson on mirrors, but Ginny was far away from defense against the dark arts. Another piece had just fallen into her puzzle, and she had no idea what to make of it all.

What did it all mean?

**xxxxx**

Ahhhhhahahah!! It's been over a year since my last update, and I've had this chapter pretty much written since…December 2006? Yeah. --; However, with the advent of The End, and the HPOotP movie, we have much to look forward to (and cry about). So THIS IS IT. After three and a half years, this fanfiction mistress is finally planning to end this fic.

WOOO HERE I GO.


End file.
